"Mr. Erdo, sit down and talk." Scrooge made a gesture for the tall, thin man in his forties standing in front of him to sit down and speak.

"Ah, thank you, Mr. MacDonald." Eldo sat down a little stiffly, Scrooge noticed that when he sat down, his ass sat very forward, unlike Scrooge, who usually buried himself deep in the sofa, Eldo's back was still a full foot away from the backrest, and his legs were also put together in a regular manner, looking honest and honest. This pleased Scrooge, and he continued:

"Mr. Eldo, I heard that you have something to ask me for?"

"Ah, that's right." Eldo explained, "Mr. McDonald, the company has recently received orders that have exceeded the annual production capacity of the factory, and you know, we haven't had time to complete the first phase of the factory yet, and we are not going to expand production on a large scale until next year's planting results are available, so should we stop accepting interested orders?" ”

"How good is the publicity?" Scrooge asked, originally he thought that the fertilizer should not have been accepted so quickly, in history, the rapid promotion of this thing was also after the actual effect, so Scrooge did not expect that the effect of his own propaganda would be so good.

"Yes, Mr. MacDonald." Eldo replied, "I have the statistics here. Eldo stood up, stepped forward and handed a copy to Scrooge, and explained: "You see, Mr. MacDonald, we receive about eight hundred letters a day these days, and almost all of them have expressed interest in 'earth gold,' and seventy-eight percent of them wish to order this fertilizer immediately, and in just a few days the amount of orders proposed in these letters exceeds the total production we have scheduled for next year." Are we ......"

Scrooge lowered his head and looked at the text, and then said to Eldo: "You can notice this problem in time and inform us, this is good, we will consider it." Well, how is the construction of the new plant progressing? ”

"Mr. MacDonald, the infrastructure of the factory, such as the factory building, roads, and supporting power facilities are all carried out in advance, and are currently under construction according to the schedule. As long as the new equipment has been completed and sent to the factory, it is now being installed, as long as the new equipment is not delayed, we can probably complete the construction one month to one and a half months ahead of schedule. ”

"Good." Scrooge said, "Pay close attention to construction, pay attention to quality, and don't make quality problems in order to rush the construction period." ”

……

"Hey, Hanks, have you heard? The sale plan for earth gold came out. Jim shouted to Hanks.

"How do you sell this?" I've been listening to the bombardment of advertisements for this thing, plus trust in the quality of the things in the MacDonald series, yes, trust in the quality of the things in the MacDonald series. When Hanks was in Alaska, he had seen more than once the difference between the original MacDonald and other cheap imitations, whether it was a lighter or a bag, or a dagger, shovel and pistol. Although MacDonald's genuine products are more expensive, their things are really not comparable to other people's things. So when they started advertising for "Earth Gold", Hanks immediately sent a pre-order letter to the address mentioned in the advertisement.

"It's in this newspaper that came today." Jim handed the newspaper to Hanks, who took it, and he saw the news.

“…… Since the number of orders has exceeded our current production capacity, and more scheduled letters are being sent to the company, in order to ensure that all customers who support our company have an equal opportunity to use our products, after research, our company has decided to sell the first batch of products by lottery. We will number all letters sent before 0:00 on *month* and signed by our company before 24:00 on **month**. Then we will draw a number to determine the first lucky batch of lucky people who can buy the first batch of 'earth gold' from our company. Each number is limited to 500 kilograms. Our company will provide technical guidance and income guarantee for these lucky winners, and ensure that after they correctly use our company's 'soil gold' in accordance with the guidance of our technical personnel, the yield per mu will exceed 20% of the average yield per mu in the United States last year. In the event that the yield is not up to standard, our company will provide compensation equivalent to the shortfall of the grain production to these lucky users...... The final interpretation of this clause belongs to the company. ”

"Well, it seems that 'earth gold' is a good thing," said Jim, "and they are almost guaranteeing a good harvest with their 'earth gold'." But if we buy their fertilizer and then don't plant it seriously, won't they lose a lot? ”

"They kept the back hand. If you don't manage the additions, it will be said that you have not used them correctly, and then it has nothing to do with them. Hanks replied that he was used to seeing the back door in this kind of agreement when he was in Alaska.

"And you see here, 'the final interpretation of this clause belongs to the company', and the final interpretation is up to them. So, don't think you'll be able to beat people. Moreover, the power in the hands of these big companies is not what you can imagine, and if you want to trap them, you don't know how you died. However, large companies also value their own prestige, and if they dare to say so, it means that they will intervene for sure, and the increase in production by no more than 20 percent will be very, very little. Hanks finally said, "I just don't know if I'll be able to draw in the end." ”

"Hanks, you see, they don't seem to say that they are giving each person a number, or a number for each letter?" Jim said, "Well, there's still half a day before the deadline for the letter to be sent, so why don't we hurry up and write a few more letters?" ”

……

A few days later, in the presence of radio and newspaper reporters, the Cleveland Farm Company conducted a lottery in which 20 numbers were drawn out of the 100,000 letters encoded, for a total of 10,000 numbers. These people are the lucky ones of the first batch.

Hanks' number wasn't shaken, but Jim's luck was one of the 10,000 lucky winners.

……

The construction of the plant is still progressing, and the training of workers and technicians is also underway. At the end of the year, the plant will be fully operational. A qiē seemed to be smooth, but one day, James found Scrooge with a phone call.

"Mr. MacDonald, there's one thing I need to report back to you." It was clear from the phone that James was nervous.

"What's wrong? James, you're not the one who can't hold your breath. What's going on? ”

"We found that someone was trying to steal information about ammonia." James replied.

"Did you catch it? Who are they? Scrooge asked.

"It was two technicians, both of whom were caught, but the guy who connected with them escaped, taking some of the information with him." James said nervously.

"What did they get? Where did it go? Who instructed them to do it? Scrooge stood up and asked coldly. James felt that the telephone receiver suddenly became cold, as cold as the ice that had not melted on the glaciers of Alaska for thousands of years. He quickly replied: "It's about part of the design of the compressor." According to them, it was a man who called himself Rhodes who bribed them with a lot of money. It was the one who had fled, and they didn't know the identity of the man. ”

"And then he ran away, and there's nothing you can do?" Scrooge asked angrily.

"We chased him, and he fled in...... Escaped to the French consulate. James said, "Our men fenced off the consulate. What do we do now? ”

"What should I do?" A sneer came from the receiver of the phone, "Do you still need me to teach you?" Contact the police immediately, have your men pretend to be bandits, shoot with them, and quickly take over the French consulate! And then do you want me to teach you anything? ”

"Yes! Be! James immediately responded.

"What are you talking about! Hurry up and do it! Scrooge's roar came from the earpiece......

……

"Scrooge, what's wrong?" Dorothea was also startled when she saw that her husband had received a phone call and suddenly roared.

"It's nothing," Scrooge smiled hard at his wife, "a couple of spies stole a little bit of us." ”

"Didn't catch them? Let them flee to the French consulate? Dorothea heard part of the content, and naturally became nervous, "You let them rush directly into the consulate to arrest people and look for things, this won't be, there won't be any problems, right?" Will the French ......"

"What can the French do?" Scrooge smiled coldly, "Even if I ask them to kill all the French in the consulate, will the French declare war on the United States because of a bandit attack?" ”

"But, for sure, they'll know what's going on." Dorothea did not seem to accept for a moment that such a violent method could be used against diplomats, you know, legally speaking, the consulate is equivalent to French territory, and Scrooge is equivalent to invading France by doing so.

"Of course they know, and even if they don't, we have to let them know. But what if they knew? Do you say to the outside world, 'Because we are engaged in espionage activities in the United States and stole other people's trade secrets, we were chased in'? Napoleon III is now under so much pressure from the Prussians, I don't believe he would dare to react at this time! ”