In less than two months, the framework of a factory site was built using a new type of reinforced concrete, and in about another month, the Smith plant was theoretically ready for production.

The factory area is almost finished, but Tom looks at the cold concrete buildings with no joy and more worry.

"Hey, where are you going to recruit employees?"

Lying on the rickety Taishi chair, Tom took a sip of warm water with a straw handed by the little deaf girl next to him, and Tom couldn't help but sigh with the "White Paper on the Proportion of Population Composition in Texas" that he had just closed in his hand.

"The white population of Texas is more than 100,000, and the blacks are a little less than the whites, and the most are Indians, with hundreds of thousands, and all the populations add up to nearly a million people."

"This amount of population is not even enough for my industrial area."

Of course, a population of nearly a million could fill all the jobs in the Smith Industrial Area, but in Tom's eyes, Indians are not people.

If it is said that the black slave, who has been raised by whites for hundreds of years, with the "help" of iron rods and leather whips, can be called basically qualified labor, and has barely become a fully automatic, zero-pollution, ecological and environmentally friendly cotton industry machine.

Then these customs and cultures are completely out of touch with the industrialized society in all aspects. In particular, they also had a sense of ownership of the American continent, which led to the fact that these Indians were only suitable to be fertilizer in the cotton fields in Tom's eyes.

Or make soap.

Leaving these Indians alone, the total population of Texas is less than 200,000 for whites and blacks.

In the past few years, the Civil War has killed more than 30 percent of white men aged 18-40 among white people in Texas, and a large number of white men have been disabled by the war, resulting in the loss of labor.

As for blacks? In addition to facing the "legal arrest" of the Texas Rangers all the time, he also has to face the "friendly recruitment" of the Yankee garrison.

The rest of the men, while the whites are all old, weak, sick and disabled, and the blacks receive strong "offers" from both the North and the South, still have to ensure the basic agricultural production of Texas.

Tom did the math, and there was very little surplus population in the Texas area to support the operation of the Smith Industrial Zone, and the giant factory area, which required a minimum of 100,000 people to function.

"Is it slowly developing like in the previous life?"

"It's too slow."

In his previous life, Tom relied on the "import of high-quality talents" from Eastern Europe, and it took more than half a year to fill up a fertilizer factory, two pharmaceutical factories and a few factories that should not be explicitly stated, which was too slow.

Tom took out a fake cigarette and took a few deep breaths of filtered air, the hollowing of his lungs and the false lack of oxygen stimulated Tom's brain, making Tom think about how to recruit a job.

"What was the biggest obstacle to recruiting workers in my last life?"

"It's the Yankee garrison!"

"It's a mistake to get all of them to "resign" in my last life, isn't it good to ask them to change jobs and work under me? ”

Tom remembered the experience of the Yankey garrison in his previous life and his own snatching of "high-quality social black talents".

At that time, young Tom was still so angry that he sent almost half of the Texas garrison to God.

Looking back now, aren't these all the best "Black Slave Employee Headhunting Squad"?

The Yankee can send headhunters to the Dixie area to arrest people and go to the Yankey factory area to work, why can't I, Tom Smith, let these headhunters jump to the Smith factory area?

Couldn't there be a "recruitment headhunting team" in the Smith factory area?

"Go, Loki, come with me to give these Yankee garrisons a whole job."

——————

April 13, 1866,

The Yankees differed on the postwar approach to the South.

One faction wanted to restore the strength of the United States of America by rebuilding the South and reviving its production, especially agricultural production.

On the other hand, they wanted to continue to suppress the South and prevent it from continuing to collude with Great Britain, leading to another outbreak of the Civil War.

The House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington debated the issue on a daily basis, but the only thing that was agreed upon was the extremely strict militarization of the South after the war.

The bigger consensus was for these garrisons to transport millions of blacks to the Yankee Industrial Zone to fill the population gap in the Industrial Zone.

On the outskirts of Houston, inside tents, are hundreds of Yankee garrisons.

As the largest port city in Texas and a key point of foreign exchange, Houston is focused on by the Yankees, with thousands of troops garrisoned.

In the field next to the tent camp, there are two Yankee ** who are hooked shoulders and smoking cigarettes.

"Ensign, how long will it take for us to get back to New York?"

"What are you doing back in New York? It's hard to have a place to eat and drink spicy, why rush back? ”

From their uniforms and conversations, it can be known that one is a second lieutenant, and the other is just an ordinary big-headed soldier.

"Let's go back, at most we can only work in a factory, and if we are lucky, we can be a security guard and manage a few people."

"But here?"

"In addition to military pay, you can get paid a few dollars for every black slave caught on the train to New York."

"Also, I'll tell you quietly, take a few pieces of bread and go to Sixteenth Street to find a large number of ancient ......."

"Hey, hey, you know."

The second lieutenant "taught" the fellow recruits next to him how to "enjoy" military life in a foreign land.

Halfway through speaking, the lieutenant raised his hand in a dashing manner, flicked his fingers, and drew a beautiful parabola from his hand with the butt of the cigarette with Mars.

The recruit also imitated the captain's movements and threw the cigarette in his hand.

"Really? Second lieutenant, you must bring my little brother next time. ”

"Of course it's true, it's better to choose a day than to hit the day, just now, I'll take you to play."

"Thank you, big brother, big brother, fire."

The younger brother directly took out a brand new cigarette, handed it to the second lieutenant's mouth, and took out a matchbox.

Excitedly, he took out a match and lit a cigarette for the second lieutenant.

The original two cigarette butts that had not been extinguished were left alone in the dry weeds.

"Big brother, after I got up today, why do I always feel a strange smell in the barracks?"

"How can a bunch of stinky men be tasteless? Hurry up, if you go late, there will be no good goods. ”

Just when the two ** left the barracks less than two hundred meters, the barracks suddenly burst into flames.

Two cigarette butts set fire to most of the barracks.

"There's a fire!"

Not only the Yankee garrison in Houston, but also more than half of the Yankee garrison in southern America were on fire on this day.

Could this be a coincidence?

Of course not, Tom arranged for Loki to do it.

Tom is going to burn the Yankee garrison in the entire Dixie area.

This is just the first step in the plan.