"John, what the hell do you think. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info let the big boss not do it, and came to join the army. Crawford, who was replaced by Martin, was a little curious, "I used to have my own small company on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico. Although it didn't make much money, it was a long time before I sold it and came to the staff to report. ”

John was speechless for a moment, what could he say? I'm okay to fool myself and pit myself? The self-parents killed their relatives in righteousness, and they used him to block the eye-catching?

For a while, the atmosphere at the card table was a little awkward, and everyone didn't speak. Crawford realizes that he may have asked the wrong question and is about to change the subject, but John takes the initiative to tell him how he was "enlisted".

Sometimes exposing scandals is also a good way to get closer to friends, especially when he is a little too "out of the crowd" in his circle of friends. The effect of this move is very good, and the atmosphere of the game is much better all of a sudden. At least after listening to John's story, Martin and the others, who were amused by his "unlucky" experience, were obviously much more relaxed.

"Robert, you said you used to have your own company in the Gulf of Mexico, what did you do?" When everyone was almost laughing, John asked Crawford a question.

"A small company that manufactures hookless buttons for Tailong Company." Crawford replied.

The so-called "hookless buttons" are actually zippers. It's just that the word zipper (zipper) used in later generations still only refers to a kind of long overboot with a zipper. (Originally invented to solve the problem of wearing boots, zippers began to be used in clothing until 1935, when only pilots' leather flight suits had zippers.) ）

Crawford told John that he had come up with the idea of making zippers in 1935 when he saw some clothing designers using zippers in the work of The New Yorker magazine. Because of the small capital and small scale, I didn't make much money after a few years. Most of it was taken away by Tyrone (the patent owner of the "hookless buttons").

John smiled: "Your company sold early. If you keep it, you might be able to make a fortune. He told Crawford that zippers can be used not only for pilots' uniforms, but also for all kinds of military telescopes, mapping instruments, mapping tools, maintenance tools, and leather cases for professional maps. With Crawford's position in the Battle Planning Division, as long as he can receive a small order from the military at the beginning, the business will automatically come to his door in the future.

He then told Crawford some basic routines on how to make money during the war. Based on the experience of the last world war, some far-sighted businessmen would establish or acquire a number of small businesses before the war. Once the U.S. enters the war, they will cooperate with the government's transition economic plan and sell most of the equity of these small companies to the government. When the government takes over, it will invest a lot of money to expand production. All they had to do was wait until the post-war government liquidated its assets and then buy the company back at a low price.

In this way, they can easily get a new company with a larger scale, more skilled workers, more technology accumulation, and more business channels. And all this is done with government money, without them having to pay a penny themselves. If done well, they can even get a lot of surplus supplies at a fraction of the price.

Take Remington, for example, before World War I, it was a small factory producing typewriters, with only a few dozen people in total. Studying rifles was just a hobby of the company's founder, Elifarette Remington. During World War I, they moved to the military industry, using government funds to train nearly 10,000 skilled workers, and expanding the scale of the enterprise by a factor of 100. After the war, they sold the company back for less than 10% of its market value, and disposed of nearly $10 million worth of surplus supplies.

Although this trick is not as much as that of those big families to act as financial agents of belligerent countries and make more money for them to underwrite war bonds for arms procurement and financing, it is better because the threshold is low and the investment is small, and it is also one of the only ways to make "war money". At the end of the last world war, 20,000 new millionaires were born in the United States, and a large number of them made their fortunes that way.

John's words made those present stunned and incredulous. Crawford thumped his chest even more, full of remorse. The great opportunity to become a millionaire was just let go by him, can you not feel distressed.

"Alright, Robert, don't regret it." John comforted him, saying, "The war in Europe has just begun, and there are so many opportunities to make a fortune. ”

Bradley and Martin didn't say anything, and Clark, who was more active, spoke first: "John, you mean it's too late to prepare?" ”

Crawford, who had just found himself rubbing shoulders with his millionaire dreams, hurriedly asked, "yes." John, do you have any good projects? I don't have a lot of money, but I have some relationships with a few local banks in Louisiana, and I can get loans. ”

"What kind of loan, a few of us can get together and do it together." Clark clearly wanted a piece of the pie and couldn't wait to make a request to join.

"What do you mean, Omar, Martin?" John asked. This kind of thing does not suffer from few, but only unevenness. If you want to do it, let's do it together, and no one is missing. When you get it, you really get rich, and those who don't participate are red-eyed, which affects the relationship between everyone.

"I don't know much about that." Bradley is the big brother of them all, and his words carry more weight. He knew that John was intending to bring them to make a fortune together, but he had studied how to fight wars for half his life, and he really didn't know anything about business.

"I'm joining." Martin's answer was crisp. The salary of an army officer is really not very good now, and he has three children at home, and it is really difficult for him to support his family with the salary of a major. He used to stay in the military advisory group in the Philippines for so many years, wasn't it just to earn more subsidies and extra money.

"Well, I'll talk about the plan first. Everyone should do it together as they see fit. If one person disagrees, we'll pull it down. John's plan was simple: the five of them would buy a river shipyard on a small scale, and they would be able to produce that kind of river boats.

His goal was to go to the order for a future military landing craft. At that time, whether it is the seizure of islands in the Pacific Ocean or the landings in North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, a large number of landing craft will be indispensable. The goal of the big American shipyards is to compete for orders for large warships and freighters, and they don't look down on these small boats, which make only a few thousand dollars per profit.

As long as John and the others get out the classic LCT (tank landing craft), LCM (mechanized landing craft), LCP (large personnel landing craft), and LCV (vehicle landing craft), they will not be worried about not receiving orders from the military when the time comes. Besides, three of the five of them worked in the department in charge of the army's material procurement, which was too useless to do.

John estimates that they will be able to win orders for at least five or six thousand landing craft by then, and it will be no problem to earn an average of one or two million dollars per person.

John's painting of the pie moved even Bradley. He is a one-minded person who goes to the battlefield, but he also needs to think about his wife and children. If you are unfortunate in the future, you can't let your wife and daughter live on pensions.

Everyone couldn't care about playing cards anymore, and they talked about it for a long time. In the end, John made a final decision, and he found someone to handle the acquisition of the river shipyard. All investments are divided into five on average, with each person holding 20% of the shares in the new company. In the future, whoever wants to sell shares can only sell them to other shareholders equally, and they are not allowed to sell them to outsiders. The company's Nissan management is responsible for the professional manager, and no one is allowed to interfere without authorization.

Bradley and the others knew that John was intentionally helping them, and there was no doubt about his arrangement. Fools know that a rich man like John, who is worth tens of millions, can't cheat himself for a trivial matter of tens of thousands of dollars. By the time of dinner, they had agreed on the investment, and the new company would be called Band-of-Brothers, as John had proposed.