Chapter 89: Prologue to the Memorial Service
April 2, 1868,
"Ha~"
At ten o'clock in the morning, Tom reluctantly got out of bed, yawned, and stretched out again.
For Tom, waking up at 10 a.m. is torture!
In Tom's words, ten o'clock should be classified as early morning, and everyone should get up after twelve o'clock.
Tom hated the employees who were working overtime.
After waking up, with the help of the female secretary, Tom completed all the preparations for the morning.
Slowly putting on his mask and sunglasses, Tom walked out of the office, and secretly got into an ordinary Smith carriage that was not his own under the escort of many hero "security guards".
Around eleven o'clock, Tom arrived at the Smith train station in Houston.
The train station was already filled with reporters from the three major Texas newspapers.
The three major newspapers in Texas are the Texas State Newspaper, the HERO Newspaper, and the Texas Staff Union Newspaper.
It is not difficult to see from the name that these three newspapers are supported by the Texas government, supported by HERO Company, and supported by the Texas Smith Factory Employees Federation.
Considering the origins of these three forces, it is not an exaggeration to say that these three newspapers are HERO No. 1 Newspaper, HERO No. 2 Newspaper, and HERO No. 3 Newspaper.
Reporters from the three major newspapers have received "credible information" that Tom Smith, the founder of HERO, and Governor Rocky Smith, the new governor of Texas, will be taking a train from Austin to Houston this morning.
Tom and Loki's "grapevine" inside the reporters both said that they had hurried from Austin to attend a mourning party for the 1868.4.1 bombing.
Tom and his party quietly entered the train station through the side door of the train station.
A train from Austin entered the Smith train station, this train was a "special car", the whole train was empty with a dozen people, and when they got off the station, a dozen bodyguards surrounded one person—Governor Rocky Smith, walked outside the train station.
Considering that the previous governor, Governor James, died with a "stoning punishment", Governor Rocky reasonably cleared the unrelated personnel at the train station in advance for safety reasons.
The crowd of guards walked and walked, and after a corner, there was an additional crowd "out of thin air" next to the crowd of governors.
When the group of people walked to the main entrance of the train station, all the reporters present looked over and looked at the two people surrounded by the "security guards" - Tom Smith and Rocky Smith.
Hundreds of reporters frantically surrounded and asked two young people in their twenties in the style of "chasing and intercepting":
"Mr. Smith, what do you think of the bombing of the HERO factory, is it a Yankee conspiracy?"
"Governor Smith, how is the Texas government going to deal with this incident?"
"President Carl, the president of the Texas Staff Federation, is also on his way to Houston, what do you two think of President Carl's view on this incident - to thoroughly investigate the bombing and kill the employees on a sunny day?"
"Mr. Smith......"
"Governor Smith ......"
Through the guards, the reporters frantically asked questions to the Texas governor and the founder of HERO in the center of the two crowds.
As long as the two top people have any answer or any reaction, these reporters will write it down in a small notebook, go back and "slightly" "artistically" process it, and it can become a headline.
Tom and Loki were well aware of the reporter's urine, and they kept their heads down and didn't show any expression along the way, and hurried towards the carriage that had been arranged in advance.
"Mr. Smith! There are rumors that this bombing was arranged by the HERO company itself! What do you think? ”
A tall, brown-haired woman told a "rumor", a true "rumor", in a high-pitched voice, in a high-pitched voice when Tom stepped into the carriage.
Tom didn't even react, and got into the car normally, a glimmer of light flashed in the eyes of the female secretary behind Tom, and her body trembled slightly.
It's a pity that the focus of the reporters is not on the female secretary, and no one cares about this female waitress.
Several carriages drove towards the factory area of the HERO company, but the reporters kept following the carriages, and from time to time they continued to shout some sharp questions, imagining that the two men in the carriage could stand up and answer.
On the newly built road, Tom's carriage finally shook off the trailing reporters.
Seeing that there was no one around to follow, the female secretary rarely took the initiative to talk to Tom, and made a gesture to wipe her neck with her hand:
"Tom, that woman, do you want it?"
"How did you start worrying about this kind of thing, becoming the same guy as John. It's not cute if the little rabbit wants to eat meat and drink blood, and you won't be allowed to do this in the future. ”
"Don't people care about you~"
"Hiss~"
On the carriage, the female secretary was a little upset that the woman just now, following John's usual tone, put forward a suggestion to "deal with the female reporter amicably".
Tom really felt that the female secretary was getting weirder and weirder, and Tom didn't like such a female secretary, so he reprimanded the female secretary slightly.
The female secretary also figured out Tom's habits a long time ago, deliberately curled up into Tom's arms, and made Tom forget the "uncute" behavior of the female secretary just now.
Tom didn't mind what rumors these reporters would spread, anyway, the three newspapers were all under his sister's control, and if the three newspapers didn't "spray" a few times on the surface and attack their opponents a few times, it would be too fake.
The two carriages came one after the other to a small plaza next to the Smith factory district outside Houston, which was crowded with people and the occasional crying of the crowd.
This is the site of the largest bombing and the site of the mourning service for this mega bombing.
Why the biggest bombing? And not the only bombing?
Smith factory area across Texas had a large-scale explosion last night, and Houston, as the home base of HERO, was the largest and most tragic explosion in the Smith factory area.
The flames at the Houston Smith factory were completely extinguished, and the fire caused by the explosion was nothing to mention and was easily extinguished.
HERO's goods have long been in short supply due to Tom's behavior of "buying high and selling low" grain, and there are no chemical products stored in the warehouse.
The residue of chemicals in the production process inside the factory was also cleaned up in the same place by hundreds of thousands of people in one afternoon.
The location of the bomb was also carefully calculated by Tom and the demolition engineer, and the explosives were also specially made, except for destroying the wall, there was no continuous burning characteristic.
Therefore, it is reasonable to say that there has been no secondary explosion of chemical products and flames that are difficult to extinguish in the Smith factory area.