Christmas in the nineteenth century and Christmas in the twenty-first century are two completely different festivals, in fact, Christmas has nothing to do with the Chinese, but because the Chinese have always loved to join in the lively habits, so the 21st century Christmas is also popular among the Chinese, Li Mu has also been lively a few times in his last life, although he does not understand the essence of Christmas in the West, but he still has a better understanding of the form of Christmas, such as peace fruit, Christmas cards, Santa Claus, Christmas parties, etc., are part of Christmas.

In the nineteenth century, there were not as many Christmas as in the twenty-first century, people in this era did not have the awareness of "holiday economy", businesses had not learned to guide people to spend holidays, people would go to church to do dispersal at Christmas, and they would eat a Christmas meal at night, and there were not many other items, so that shopping, gifts, red socks and so on, people were slowly getting used to all this.

Not accustomed to walking, in order to make Christmas more presentable, Li Mu is also painstaking, the subsidiaries of the Horse Group began to promote the promotion of goods during the Christmas period a long time ago, especially the two chain stores of urban beauty and men's clothing, the discount is absolutely unprecedented, many citizens are looking forward to trying their luck before Christmas, on weekdays, most New York citizens will not go to the city beauty and men's clothing to consume.

The store has also made a lot of preparations, this year, urban beauty and men's clothing at the same time launched the "Christmas window", the store also hired a lot of Santa Claus to attract customers, which greatly aroused people's interest, and Christmas-related goods began to sell well from a month ago, Santa hats have become the best-selling goods, so far more than 200,000 have been sold, in addition to a large number of red socks and Santa Claus suits, many citizens even if they live frugally, is also willing to bring more joy to the children in the family during this festival, and the rich people's favorite is the decorated golden Christmas tree, these Christmas trees are not cheap, the most expensive Christmas tree costs more than 100,000 US dollars, the bells on it are all made of gold, such a Christmas tree Li Mu originally thought that no one would buy it, in addition to Rockefeller bought one, Li Mu also bought one and put it on Governors Island, originally in Li Mu's plan, the most expensive Christmas tree, probably only sold two.

What Li Mu didn't expect was that Americans' enthusiasm for Christmas was beyond imagination, and there were many more rich people in the United States than Li Mu imagined, the most expensive Christmas tree, only on the 22nd, 15 were sold, and during the entire Christmas period, the total sales of urban beauties and men's clothing are estimated to be more than 10 million US dollars.

Ten million dollars!

If you don't count the New York Customs, the New York City government's annual tax revenue is less than $10 million.

There is no such thing as the Spring Festival in the United States, and in a customary sense, Christmas represents the end of the year, and the year-end bonus is naturally indispensable.

Junma Group is as generous as ever this year, each employee has a lot of year-end bonuses, even if it is a new apprentice, at least a hundred dollars to start, as for Henry such a company executive, Li Mu generously gave each person a Junma Automobile Factory production of the latest Phantom car, the market price of this car is 65,000 US dollars, if you want to send abroad, then the tariffs have to pay for themselves, it is estimated that around Christmas, Junma Group issued a bonus of more than 15 million US dollars, which happened to be last year's "Time Magazine" On the published wealth list, the entire net worth of the tenth richest person is located.

Of course, Time Magazine's wealth list does not look comprehensive now, after all, people like Simon Steele do not even appear on the rich list, and with Simon Steele's more than 1,000 Manhattan houses, the total assets must exceed $150 million.

Back to Governors Island, Gloria and Chu Xue have prepared dinner, this year's Christmas dinner is more special, Will is in the army, there is no way to stay on Governors Island and celebrate Christmas with the children, Lao Yan and his wife are back to Springfield, they have no concept of Christmas, they don't want to join in the fun, simply go back to Springfield to hide, so that only Li Mu's family is left on Governors Island.

Oh, and there's Sandy, this little girl has nowhere to go but to stay on Governor's Island.

"Merry Christmas!" Gloria took the coat that Li Mu had just taken off, and kissed Li Mu on the cheek very perfunctorily, her mind was on her son: "Are the gifts for the children ready?" It's their first Christmas and the first Christmas gift they've ever received, and you'd better not be perfunctory, or the kids will definitely have to complain about you in the future. ”

The children!

It's good, it seems that Gloria hasn't forgotten the little padded jacket.

"Rest assured, the gift will be in the red socks next to their pillows tomorrow morning." Li Mu forgot that no one would forget the little padded jacket and Little Will, the gifts were prepared early, Gloria and Chu Xue also shared, and even prepared Sandy's.

"It's better to be like this, I heard that the Spaniards have conceded defeat and a new government has been formed in Luzon, it's good that the war is finally over-" Gloria is still a little sick and habitually discusses current affairs with Li Mu, which is a habit she developed when she was a reporter.

"Don't work today, happy birthday brother-in-law, where's my gift?" Sandy is looking forward to getting something, poor thing, when it was Christmas before, Will didn't have so many tricks, Li Mu came to the United States in the past few years, and gave Sandy more gifts than Will had given in more than ten years before.

It's good to have more Sandy at home, at least there is a lot of joy, Li Mu knows Sandy very well, and the gifts he prepared are very suitable for Sandy's appetite: "Give, Merry Christmas, fill in the numbers as you like-"

What Li Mu prepared for Sandy was a blank check, but unfortunately there was a limit, and the maximum amount of each check could not exceed five hundred dollars.

But it's a lot, and that's one.

"Thank you, brother-in-law—" Sandy's expression was a little tangled, it should have been a very happy thing, but she didn't feel much joy, of course this gift was good, but- this is too perfunctory!

Looking at the tangled Sandy, Gloria laughed heartily, but when she turned to look at Li Mu, her eyes were threatening, if Li Mu also gave Gloria a check for Gloria to fill in casually, Gloria would definitely give Li Mu two copies - and there was no limit.

In other words, as the first heir of the Barron family, Gloria is not on Li Mu's side, but also a proper rich man, and there is such a thing as a check, and Sandy, who does not have any property in his name, is still a little interested.

"Can we start? The children will go to bed later-"The first snow is always so intimate, not fighting or grabbing, but there should be no less, this is the oriental philosophy of life."

Before going to bed, Li Mu sneakily came to Little Will's room and stuffed an envelope into the red socks next to Little Will's pillow, Gloria was very curious and wanted to open it to take a look, but Li Mu resolutely refused: "It's just a letter, on it are some of my blessings, I hope the children will always remember that we love them, even if one day we are not alive, they have something to miss us." ”

Oh, this gift is considered to have a heart, it is not expensive, it is full of affection, Gloria immediately turned red, and pulled Li Mu back to the room.

In fact, Li Mu is very busy tonight, and he will give a gift to the little padded jacket in a while.

Well, it's better to be busy, after all, Li Mu still wants to have a few more children.

The result of Hu Tianhudi's overnight was that Li Mu felt a faint backache when he got up in the morning, but he didn't take this pain to heart, it was worth it, Li Mu was full of energy all day.

"It's a little different from what we expected, the first president of the new government in Luzon is Fernand Gonzalez Jr., not Lin Xianghai who we fancied before, but it doesn't matter, Lin Xianghai served as vice president, and also served as the president of the National Assembly, in terms of rights, it is a little bigger than the president, Fernand Gonzalez Jr.'s first presidential decree is to determine the national identity of all Luzon Chinese, give Luzon Chinese due national treatment, and lift all formal restrictions on Luzon Chinese, At the same time, the new government will also investigate the previous violence against ethnic Chinese, and if the murderer is a native of Luzon, then it will be handed over to the Luzon Supreme Court for trial, and if the murderer is a Spaniard, then the Luzon government will negotiate with the Spanish government, and in any case, the Luzon government will not spare a criminal. "Situ Lei is now Li Mu's personal adviser, and Yan Shun is gradually transferring all matters related to the Far East to Situ Lei, and in the future, Situ Lei will be the head of the Far East, and Yan Shun is only responsible for the United States.

The new government in Luzon adopted a similar form of government to the United States, the president is elected by all the people, but the act is accountable to Congress, if Congress believes that the president is not qualified, then the president can be impeached, once Congress passes a motion of no confidence in the president, the president will immediately step down, and Congress will form a temporary committee to govern the country until the next president is born.

In this way, the power of Congress is indeed greater than the president, if the president has no prestige, the days will be more aggrieved than the president of the United States, the first president is Fernand Gonzalez Jr. It is not bad, anyway, the establishment of the new government needs a transitional stage, and it is impossible to get on the right track all at once, the new government of Luzon has a task to improve the social status of the Chinese in Luzon, and some people will definitely be offended in this process. Gonzalez has cleared away the hidden dangers in the country, and his term of office is estimated to be at the end, when Lin Xianghai can come out to pick peaches.

"It didn't matter in the past, the main thing is that in the future, the selection of judges is very important, and it must be controlled in our hands, as well as the Luzon Labor Export Company, as soon as possible, the framework is put up as soon as possible, Panama now needs a lot of workers, and Japan alone can no longer meet the needs of Panama." Li Mu did not forget to settle accounts after the autumn, but more importantly, the population was replaced, and only when the Chinese occupied the majority position in Luzon, the social status of the Chinese would not be shaken.

Population replacement is a very serious problem, why were the Chinese in Luzon bullied in the past, there is no strong force is just a appearance, the key is that the population is insufficient, if more than half of the population of Luzon are Chinese, the Spaniards have to weigh more even if they want to attack the Chinese, as for those local natives, they have no courage to raise the butcher's knife against the Chinese, regardless of the number of people, in terms of combat effectiveness, the Chinese are much stronger than those natives.

As for the Panama Canal, as the excavation of the canal was in full swing, the number of workers needed was increasing, most of whom had previously been imported from Japan, and some able-bodied Japanese laborers even had the opportunity to join Panamanian companies and become enviable mercenaries.

In the last two years, Bai Qi has begun to turn his attention to Russia, trying to provoke a war between Japan and Russia, which is not good to send a large number of Japanese young men to Panama, and the indigenous Luzon is a good supplement.

In fact, when it comes to work, the Luzon natives are much worse than the Japanese, the Luzon natives are notoriously lazy, as long as they are not hungry, the Luzon natives have no habit of working, which also leads to the Luzon natives being easy and tired of work, and as a result, they are red-eyed when they see the wealth that the Chinese have worked so hard to accumulate.

In Panama, these problems do not exist, the overseers who dug the Panama Canal are all mercenaries of Panama companies, most of these mercenaries are wounded on the battlefield and retired, and then they retreat to the second line and continue to shine, these people are all murderous without blinking, some extreme and even take pleasure in abusing others, the Panama Canal has only been dug for less than five kilometers so far, but nearly 10,000 Japanese laborers who work the construction site have died, if there is no effective replenishment in human resources, The completion of the Panama Canal will be a long way off.

According to the estimates of the Panamanian company, if the current pace continues, the Panama Canal will be able to complete all the works within ten years at most, which is a significant increase compared to the original history, after all, the Panamanian company has avoided design flaws from the beginning, so that the Panama Canal has always been on the right path, which will greatly reduce the construction time of the Panama Canal.

Li Mu wants to get the Luzon natives to Panama to build the canal, and the local population structure of Panama is also related, before the Panama company dug the canal, Panama only had a total population of less than 230,000, and this number further declined during the war with Colombia, the result is that the total population of Panama is only about about 200,000 now, and at the same time, the Panamanian company has hired more than 50,000 Japanese workers, which is a very dangerous ratio, Li Mu needs the Luzon natives to dilute the proportion of the Japanese, In this way, it is convenient for further operations later.

Yes, if possible, Li Mu hopes that Panama in the future will still be dominated by Chinese, after all, with the Panama Canal, no matter what, the living standards of Panamanians will not be too bad, and this is cheap, and it must not be taken advantage of by others.