When he returned to Cincinnati, John jumped into the work. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info Because Harold had already given him a vaccination, John was not very surprised by the bad situation of the branch. Having been in the business for almost a decade, John knew exactly what it took to turn the mess around.

One of the problems was the group of cargo owners who had suffered losses in transit, and they gathered in front of John's office every day to demand compensation as soon as possible. John asked the company's in-house counsel Donald to lead them directly to the insurance company, and asked them to form a group to argue with the insurance company.

The second problem is the owners of the carriage contract that has been breached and the goods are still piled up in the company's warehouse. On the one hand, they want to extract some liquidated damages from the company, and on the other hand, they are trying to bribe the company's internal personnel to change the company's transportation plan and prioritize the delivery of their goods. After smashing up a few of the guys who had collected money and messed up the company's transportation plan, John ordered his deputy, Walter, to set about restoring normal transportation order and prioritizing the fulfillment of the transportation contract that had not yet been breached. John was not at all worried about those who had defaulted, as long as their goods were still in the company's warehouse, he knew that those people were more anxious than himself.

The third problem is that front-line rail workers, who are dissatisfied with the recent sudden increase in workload, have begun to cheat and slack off in order to get more overtime allowances. When he first started in the industry, John had a lot of losses in this area. But now, he knows all too well about these little tricks. In the box of a club, John enjoyed several bottles of Scotch whisky and a few Cuban cigars with the leaders of the local Brotherhood of Railroads (including the Brotherhood of Locomotives, the Guild of Railroad Conductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Stokers, the Brotherhood of Railroad Crews, and the Freemasons of Switchworkers, which later merged to form the United Transit Union, the largest labor organization in the United States, the Federation of Labor-CIO), and then stuffed a check for $1,000 into their jacket pockets. He didn't need to worry about the rest at all, John was well aware of the abilities and means of these people.

In less than a week, the chaos at the branch had been completely reversed. Harold told John that the board was pleased with his performance. Next, it's time to set up your own new company. In John's study, several of his cronies and subordinates who had decided to leave with him were discussing the company's plans.

Walter, the deputy branch manager, has been John's most trusted subordinate for many years. The Walter family has been with the Vanderbilt family since his grandfather's generation. When John first joined the company, Walter was placed by Harold to his side. Without Walter's assistance, John would not have been able to establish himself in Cincinnati so quickly.

Fred, the dispatcher, was John's classmate in the mathematics department at Columbia University. The Virginian, who came from a military family, lived a rigorous, thoughtful, and methodical life, and was an excellent expert in co-ordination.

Treasurer Jacob was introduced to John the year before by his father-in-law, Degallo. This bank manager from Marseille was once the white glove of a certain big figure in French politics. After escaping from the political turmoil, Jacob and his family fled to the United States. John could vaguely sense that he had a deep connection with the Jews on Wall Street.

Dvořák, the head of personnel and an expert on labor issues, was an outlier in John's group. This street-born Czech railway worker did not go to school, but was a born orator and agitator. He was a key member of the Railroad Brotherhood and was framed and imprisoned for exposing the corruption of the union's top brass, and it was John who released him on bail. Although Dvořák did not have much of a big picture and did not know much about the general policies, he was quick-witted, familiar with all kinds of street tricks, and was a good hand at handling general affairs.

In addition, there is corporate counsel Donald, who is also John's personal lawyer. However, Donald was not in the study, and he had already left for Detroit to investigate the location of the new company. Donald comes from a family of lawyers, and his father served as a justice in the Kentucky State Court. As a young man, Donald worked as an assistant prosecutor in Atlanta before having to run back to his hometown in Cincinnati after offending local magnates during a Prohibition-era inspection. John heard that during the inspection at that time, the bloody Donald arrested nearly 200 upper-class people who drank liquor at a prohibition-violating party, offending the entire upper class of Atlanta. But with this lesson, Donald has obviously been much more low-key and pragmatic in recent years, and he is no longer so idealistic.

These five people are the people John has prepared for his new company. Years later, when John became the world's logistics tycoon, they, along with seven other company veterans, were known as the "12 Apostles of John."

"Walter, in the near future, the manpower on Harold's side will be in place one after another, and you are responsible for keeping an eye on it and doing a good handover."

According to Harold's arrangement, John and the others will be evacuated from the company in batches in the near future as planned. The top priority is to do a good job in the handover of the company. After all, the Cincinnati branch was the base of John's painstaking operation for many years, and it has always been one of the foundations of the Vanderbilt family in the company's internal political map. John had to make sure that the branch was handed over smoothly to the replacement he had arranged for Harold. If there is a mistake in the handover process, it will have a great impact on the family's voice within the company. This is something that neither John nor Harold wants.

After arranging the division of work among several people in the near future, John hurriedly boarded the train to the east again. He was going to Rhode Island to attend a Republican gathering hosted by the governor's cousin. When John University had just graduated, he had worked as a personal assistant to his cousin, William Vanderbilt III, who had entered politics, and the family was indeed preparing to train him in that direction. But young John had little political talent, or even the necessary political sensitivity. So after his cousin was elected governor of Rhode Island, he went back to work for his family's railroad.

Over the years, John has not been very concerned with politics, although he has been generous in various party activities every year. The reason why he had to travel thousands of miles to attend such a party at a critical juncture in the company's creation was because John wanted to connect with one of the participants. This man was the famous William Joseph Donovan.

Donovan is a legend in history. As the founder of the Strategic Intelligence Service (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA, and the legendary godfather of the CIA, the story of him is being told even 80 years later. The reason why John was in such a hurry to get to know him was to prepare for the Second World War a few years later.

From the first day John traveled to this era, he was thinking about how to deal with this impending world war. At present, the policy of "glorious isolation" still prevails in the United States, and the conscription system is implemented, and the entire US Army has only a pitiful 100,000 men. It was not until after Pearl Harbor that the United States began mass conscription. But by 1945, the total U.S. military strength had miraculously swelled to 10.5 million, and with that came a huge shortage of junior officers. Based on his family and educational background, John estimated that nine times out of ten he would be drafted into the army as a reserve officer, serving on home soil with the rank of lieutenant or captain until the end of the war. During the First World War, his cousin Harold was like this, and throughout the war as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, he commanded a torpedo boat that was stuck in New York Harbor and did not participate in a single battle. But in any case, service is service, and even if John can save his life, he must remain in the barracks until the end of the war, which will inevitably affect his fledgling career.

John had the solution: wait until 1942 to join the Strategic Intelligence Agency. Historically, when Donovan was ordered by President Roosevelt to form the Strategic Intelligence Bureau, he did recruit a large number of members of the extended family like John. Because Donovan himself was not a professional intelligence officer, he didn't even know who he could trust. So, he recruited members from the oldest, wealthier, and most influential elite families on the East Coast. First of all, there are sufficient guarantees of loyalty to the state of these people. Second, these people already have a complex network of connections across the United States and even Europe, which are needed for intelligence work. In the early days of the Strategic Intelligence Agency, the team was filled with members from the Astor, Mellon, Morgan, Dupont, and even Roosevelt families, so much so that it looked more like a club. Some even jokingly interpret OSS (OfficeofStrategicServices) as: "Oh, SoSocial. ”

John chose the Strategic Intelligence Agency because, in part, it was part of the military during the war, and all the personnel of the Intelligence Agency had official military ranks, and joining it was equivalent to service. On the other hand, due to the peculiarities of intelligence work, intelligence officers often also have an open profession for covering their identities. In this way, John can receive the military's salary and continue to run his company. And with the help of the military, it can also pave the way for the company to open up the European market in the future. John believed that with his own memories from later generations, it was not too difficult to become a competent intelligence officer.

On the train to Rhode Island, John was still secretly proud of his "perfect" plan. Who would have thought that a few years later, God would play a big joke on him, and his little abacus would be completely in vain.