Link didn't have any time to do it, because Hull Donald hesitated to change his plans. On behalf of the Ozette Bank, he signed agreements with two financial institutions, Stoll and Gedde, and then answered several reporters' questions in the hotel before leaving New York.

He's going to Portland, Oregon.

After the fires in Oregon were extinguished, more than half a million acres of forest were burned in total, and the fires even spread to the mountains of northwestern California.

More than 400 other houses were burned down, and more than 100 people were killed or wounded.

Such a big black cauldron, no one wants to carry it.

The Oregon government blamed East Pacific for preventing firefighters from cutting down the barrier as it began to spread, as the root cause of the fire.

An official, who did not want to be named, told the media: "The tragedy could have been stopped in time. But because of the selfishness of some people, we lost the best opportunity!"

Eastpac, of course, was reluctant to accept such accusations. Their spokesman claimed: "The [Eastern Pacific] Company did not obstruct their actions. In fact, our board of directors asked the staff (on site) to help put out the fire in the first place. And they are also diverting their attention, and we should not forget that the fire was caused by the improper operation of some people. ”

In short, both sides are talking and swords every day, and they avoid the important and light.

Essentially, the fire had nothing to do with the East Pacific, and they even suffered huge losses. But they made the wrong decision in the first place, and the handle fell into the hands of the government.

At the same time, they have done a very poor job of preventing forest fires, and have repeatedly refused to open fire ditches far from the fires. Because that would burn more forests, the fire brigade was required to open up areas closer to the line of fire.

When the line of fire becomes too long, the fire brigade's efforts become meaningless.

It was this incident that made Link see the role of propaganda. A company, because of the bad reputation accumulated in the past, can easily become a scapegoat for the whole disaster under the publicity. At least in terms of public opinion.

Previously, the East Pacific Company had been hacked by the media for more than a decade because it had cut down large areas of forest and not replanted them. Now that the fire has passed, the sediment is overflowing, and the crimes are counted at the same time, and ordinary people are of course more willing to blame them.

East Pacific doesn't actually have a very large operating entity anymore, but they have a port terminal in Oregon and a large paper mill. The accusations of public opinion still put pressure on them.

As Link thought, they planned to give up the land. Hopefully stay away from this source of trouble. But the Oregon government is not willing to let them go so easily.

Of course, the Oregon government also knows that they can push the blame on the other side in public opinion, but it is impossible to get the other side to make actual compensation.

So when the Eastern Pacific said it was going to put the land on the market, they made a demand: whoever bought the land had to promise to replant the burned forests. There are also detailed requirements for the density and variety of trees.

The Oregon government's request is very justified by law.

That completely blocked the possibility of Eastern Pacific trying to sell the land.

Because no one wants to buy a piece of land and plant a forest with trees similar to the primeval forest. It's not just a matter of money, it's more important that it will take at least a few decades for such forests to be profitable.

Who wants to buy a piece of mountain land and plant trees?

Those who are willing to buy land to develop to the public are buying forests that can be developed at any time. The Eastern Pacific Company is selling a piece of mountain land that has just been burned down, and it will take at least a dozen years for such mountains to recover. Even if someone wants to be famous, they don't want to wait more than ten years.

So after the East Pacific Company listed the land that belonged to them, no one cared about it at all. Of course, this may be because the time is still short. But the Eastern Pacific Company was in a hurry to sell the land, and the listing price was not high, at only a hundred dollars per acre.

But this will definitely not be considered a conscience price. Because the terrain of that land is mostly unsuitable for cultivation, and there is no grass. Even the trees were burned. After buying it for a hundred dollars, I had to plant trees.

And at this time, Link is going to make a move.

Now he is talking to representatives of the Eastern Pacific Corporation and the Oregon government. This is a tripartite negotiation.

The three parties negotiate in the hotel's conference room. The negotiations did not go well, and after two days of talks, the three parties were still unable to reach an agreement.

The state of Oregon demanded that the land be purchased to restore at least the forest vegetation it had before the fires. And Link certainly couldn't have agreed. He didn't buy that land for the sake of the environment.

Link slowly discovers that there seems to be a deal between Eastern Pacific and the Oregon government. These three-party negotiations seem to be just negotiations between the two sides.

Finding out about this situation, he was not in a hurry to negotiate, but he did not interrupt the negotiations. Instead, a procrastination approach was taken.

The Oregon representative couldn't have been available to negotiate every day, so that gave him time to get people to look into the agreement between Oregon and the Eastern Pacific.

Maybe the other party didn't want to keep it secret at all, or maybe Mike's original agent team was efficient enough. Link quickly gets the information from Mike.

After reading it, he realized that Oregon had to intervene in the East Pacific company's land sale, mainly in the hope of getting a sum of money from the other party to compensate the residents whose houses were burned down. Because it was a man-made disaster, the insurance company was unwilling to pay for it. Even if the state government coordinates, the insurance company is willing to pay only a small part of it.

If it was a natural disaster, the state government would never care about that. The insurance company does not pay, at most they say a few words in the media: it should be paid!

And then do nothing.

When New Orleans was flooded by a hurricane, the insurance company had to wait for several years to pay for the house, and the company had not yet paid the money for losing the lawsuit, so it first issued a statement and decided not to accept insurance for new houses in the flooded areas of New Orleans.

Since then, no one has dared to rebuild houses in those neighborhoods. The population of the New Orleans metropolitan area has dropped from nearly 800,000 before the disaster to less than 400,000 after the disaster.

Insurance companies in the United States are so good!

So the Oregon government can't really help it, and it's pretty good that they can convince the insurance company to pay some of it. But if they don't pay enough to pay those residents, they will also sue the state. Because fires are man-made.

So Oregon wanted to get a share of the money from the East Pacific company's land sale.

The Eastern Pacific Company certainly didn't want to. So the Eastern Pacific Company came up with an idea.

Isn't there a part of the state land that was also burned down? If the state sells that land, the state government will have money.

And isn't the state government going to use restoration to dispel the accusations of environmentalists that Link will buy the state land and plant trees, and the land that will be given to the Pacific Company will not have to be asked to do so.

From the intelligence point of view, it is clear that the Oregon government is tempted by the proposal of the Eastern Pacific Company.

But they didn't seem to think about Link's idea at all. Link wants to buy land though. But I didn't plan to buy that much. And Oregon has more than 200,000 acres of overburned state land. After he bought it, he wanted to plant all the trees, and he bought it after he ate it?

He bought the land just to find a suitable place to raise alpacas. He doesn't need that much land at all.

Soon they had to start a third negotiation.

At the standoff between Link and Oregon, Ukshin, the representative of the Eastern Pacific, made a peacemaker gesture and said to the representative of Oregon: "Mr. Johnson, I understand your thoughts, but you can't just want to get and not be willing to do anything. ”

"I don't understand what you mean, Mr. Yukshin, we're just sticking to what we've always been. Hopefully, after this fire, the earth will come back to life as soon as possible. That's what the people of Oregon all of them want. ”

Link saw that they were arguing, and listened to them with great interest.

I heard Yuksin say mercilessly: "Mr. Jossen, there are no voters here. You don't need to say those magnificent words. You are making this gesture because environmental organizations are putting a lot of pressure on you, and the people are asking you to restore forest vegetation. And you don't have that budget. So you have to make enough gestures, whether it is successful or not, in the future, public opinion will be transferred to us in the East Pacific, and to the party that buys the land. I guess I'm not wrong. ”

Jossen didn't seem to understand what he meant at all: "Mr. Yukshin, I must repeat it once. Oregon state forest law states that forest development must be orderly and sustainable. It is also clearly stipulated that a timetable for the restoration of forest cover must be made before forest development can be made. And when East Pacific has cut down more than 180,000 acres of forest for more than a decade without planting a single tree, it is a serious violation of our forest management laws. ”

"That's slander. Before we made a development application, it didn't have that clause in Oregon before it was approved. Our development should not be blamed in any way. ”

"We all know what's going on! ”

"All I know is that East Pacific has always been operating in accordance with the law. ”

"We are now also interfering in the use of land in accordance with the law!"

Link listened to them arguing for a long time, and didn't get to the point. He bent his fingers and tapped on the table and said, "Two gentlemen." Your differences have nothing to do with me. I just want to know, if I buy that land, do I need to act on the executive order?"

"Yes, according to our rules. Johnson preemptively said. "Either side, as long as someone gives a guarantee of a timetable for revegetation and pays a certain bond, our state government can approve the transfer of the land. ”

Hearing what he said, Link turned his head to play with Yukshen and said, "Then Mr. Yukshen, what do you think of the Eastern Pacific Company?"

"We do not agree with the state government's proposal. This is a normal business activity, and the state government has no power to interfere. If necessary, we can file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court. ”

Link smiled and said, "Mr. Yukshen." I think you have to be clear: I don't have time to waste. Perhaps, I should wait for you to negotiate the results before deciding whether to buy the land or not. ”

He said as he stood up and gestured to leave.

Can the other two parties just let him go? Both the East Pacific Company and the Oregon government want the land to be sold as soon as possible. And if it is a normal listing, there are so many restrictions. The next willing to buy doesn't know when it will appear. They can't wait.