The original headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, in Santa Fe.

Not long ago, however, Chen Jianqiu bought some of Blake's shares and was elected chairman of the board of directors at the same time.

The election was dull and boring, because the directors learned that only if the mysterious Boss Chen was elected chairman could the Albuquerque to Roswell railroad be continued.

No one has trouble with money.

The only thing that made them unhappy was that Chen Jianqiu did not attend that meeting.

A tall, white man named Danny appeared in Santa Fe for him.

The man stood next to the chair.

And on the seat that should have belonged to Chen Jianqiu, a cowboy hat was placed.

Chen Jianqiu moved the headquarters of the Santa Fe Railway Company to a small three-story building next to the train station in Albuquerque.

That was the same building that Blake used to be.

This is the first time they have met with the new chairman.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the conference room on the second floor was already full.

The directors of the railroad companies came from all sorts of places, both in-state and out-of-state, east and west, and the farthest one even came from Pennsylvania.

They came all the way to see who this Chinese businessman Boss Chen was.

Blake sat silently next to the chair's seat, smoking his pipe one after another.

He always felt that he was being put on the table, but he couldn't come up with any tangible evidence.

The more the former chairman of the board of directors thought about it, the more depressed he became, and took out his pocket watch from his arms.

It's 10:29 a.m., and there's still a minute left before the officially agreed start time of the meeting.

The other shareholders are still talking to each other.

The room smelled of tobacco of all kinds.

Blake frowned as he looked at the only empty chair seat in the entire room.

This guy won't send his own hat to attend again, will he?

Just as everyone in the conference room was still communicating, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside the door of the conference room.

Not the footsteps of one, two, or three people, but the sound of many people stepping on the wooden staircase.

Everyone in the conference room was stunned.

What's going on here?

They even looked around themselves.

There really was only one empty seat in the conference room.

Footsteps approached.

One of the directors closest to the door wanted to stand up and open the door to see what was going on outside.

However, he stood up for less than two seconds before he sat down again.

The door was opened.

Two men pushed the door open, one left and one right, and then two rows of mermaids in black suits entered.

They walked along both sides of the conference room and eventually joined up behind the chairman's position, enclosing the conference table.

The members of the board of directors looked nervously around, and those who had arrived from the east were even more overwhelmed.

They had never heard of a board meeting like that.

Soon, however, their attention was grabbed.

A young man dressed in navy blue cloth walked in from outside the door.

He had a Chinese face, but unlike the Chinese merchants they knew, he did not have a shiny bare forehead, no long braids, and no satin waistcoat.

He just wore a cloth shirt, but this cloth was not as loose and fat as the Chinese style, but extremely slim, making the young man's figure more upright.

This was custom-made by Roswell's tailor aunt at the suggestion of Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu didn't tell her that this dress was actually called a tunic suit, but it had some pockets less than a tunic suit.

Chen Jianqiu walked straight to his seat, his steps steady, his face like water, followed by Abiot, Sean and Li Sifu.

Without saying a word, he walked past the various directors.

A sense of oppression came over me.

Chinese, Mexican, black, this made some of the directors a little unhappy, but after looking at the expressionless Long Xiang group standing around him, he still closed his mouth.

The directors were silent, either staring at the young man or looking down and picking their fingers.

Chen Jianqiu walked to his chairmanship, and Sean pulled out a chair for him.

The chairman of the board sat down, leaning back in his chair before pulling a cigar from his clothes.

Li Sifu ordered it for him.

Chen Jianqiu took out another delicate pocket watch and put it on the table.

His piercing gaze swept over the various directors in the seats.

The people who were swept over all felt that the hairs behind their backs stood up, and they involuntarily lowered their heads.

"Let's get started." Chen Jianqiu said briefly.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Santa Fe Railroad's financial staff gave a brief report on the company's operations during this period, the progress of the construction of the Albuquerque-Roswell railway section, etc.

As the chairman, Chen Jianqiu's expression did not change much.

He is already familiar with these data.

And most of the directors listened very carefully.

Only one Jewish merchant named Odo, who was sitting on Chen Jianqiu's right, seemed to be uninterested, and kept looking at the ceiling.

Before Chen Jianqiu became chairman, he was the second largest shareholder after Blake, and now, he is the second largest shareholder.

After the brief description of the business situation, it entered the links of various special events.

It is proposed by each director, and then there is a show of hands, such as the issuance of bonds.

Soon, it was Otto's turn.

"I have a thing." As if he had suddenly come to life from another world, he took out a stack of documents from his bag and handed them to Li Sifu, "Trouble to be handed over to Chairman Chen." ”

Li Sifu took the thing and sent it to Chen Jianqiu.

"Greetings to the Chair, Directors." Otto leaned forward slightly, greeting everyone present.

"Recently, the company is building more and more new railway projects, and we are employing more and more workers."

"And a large part of the workers we employ are Chinese workers."

"There's no denying that they're hardworking, simple, cheap, hard-working, and they've been the best people to hire for the railroad in the last decade."

Otto spoke eloquently, praising the merits of Huagong in an unhurried tone, which made some directors attending the meeting privately discuss whether the second shareholder was patting the chairman's sycophants and setting up relationships.

However, he changed his tune.

"But they're not anymore, and just a few months ago, the federal government enacted a bill that no longer grants legal citizenship to Chinese workers, so they are no longer welcome in the country."

The atmosphere in the board of directors froze suddenly.

Otto's words were aggressive, and Chen Jianqiu, who is Chinese, is sitting on a chair.

Many directors secretly looked at Chen Jianqiu, who was sitting in the chairman's seat.

They were afraid that this famous Boss Chen would directly flip the table.

However, they found the chairman holding his chin in one hand, listening to Odo with interest.

"I'm not targeting you, Chair." Otto looked at Chen Jianqiu with a smile on his face, "You are a generous and prestigious American citizen. ”

"I'm talking about Chinese workers who don't have citizenship, and we recruited a lot during this time, and even if they don't sign contracts with us directly, it's very risky."

"The government believes that they should end up going back on their own or being deported."

"It's illegal for us to hire them, and as far as I know, the union is already planning to sue us." His hand clenched into a fist and tapped slightly on the table, "You should know that those unions are not easy to mess with, and the government supports them. ”

The more Odo spoke, the more proud he became, and he had come prepared for this attack.

He didn't believe that Chen Jianqiu dared to blatantly do anything in Albuquerque.

"Is the president of the union named Murphy?" Chen Jianqiu suddenly interrupted Otto's words, "An Irishman? ”

Otto nodded.

"He changed his mind, just two hours ago." Chen Jianqiu's face was still expressionless, "He told me that he liked Chinese workers and was willing to let them join the union." If you want to see him, I can have him called right now. ”

Otto looked incredulous.

He could not believe that an Irish labour leader would like Chinese workers.

Chen Jianqiu slowly stood up, he took a puff of his cigar, "You must have heard the business situation just now, we are very in debt. Our railroad needs to continue to be built, and none of you here want to see the railroad stop. ”

The directors nodded their heads.

"I am a person who respects other people's opinions, and in this world, everyone has a different perception of each other."

"These Chinese workers will have a legal identity, Mr. Otto. They are the assets of the company. ”

Chen Jianqiu's fingertips rested on the table, he looked at Otto, and his voice suddenly turned cold:

"But before that, if the company's assets are hurt in the slightest, or if the Chinese workers don't get their salaries in the slightest, the railroad stops."

Chen Jianqiu paused: "I don't mind discussing with some people about changing their views. ”

"Alright, let's vote." He put down the cigar in his hand.

Only then did Otto feel that his entire back was wet.

(End of chapter)