October 8, 1873.

It's late at night on the western shore of the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes, but it's rare that the entire city doesn't sleep.

Odyssey, president of the Chicago branch of the Hashingen Bank, and a group of employees, as well as the citizens of the entire West Side of Chicago, were watching.

Chicago, nicknamed the "Windy City", has become a sea of fire at this moment, except for the West Side District, the fire illuminates the sky, and from time to time there are buildings that collapse in the flames, and the flames fly straight into the sky, and thick smoke billows.

Countless Chicagoans poured into West Side from other districts, and the sounds of crying, screaming, and looting were endless.

So much so that the Chicago branch of the Heshingen Bank had to step up security, with security teams patrolling around the bank with guns.

Standing on the third floor of the bank, looking out over the city center, which has been completely engulfed in flames, including the Chicago Business Center, where various banks and other financial institutions in the United States gather.

Odyssey, president of the Chicago branch of the Hashingen Bank, couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Oh, God forbid! Thankfully, Chicago's housing prices saved us. ”

The Chicago branch of the Heshingen Bank is special and built in a relatively backward area of Chicago, so the main building of the Hexingen Chicago branch stands like a flock of chickens in the middle of a bunch of shacks of no more than two floors, which is particularly abrupt, so that the president of the Odyssey can leisurely watch the fire in downtown Chicago.

The city of Chicago, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and on the plain of Lake Wutai, was originally a hunting ground for Native Americans, with a population of less than 1,000 when it was founded in 1834. As a result of the western expansion of the United States, Chicago, still a small town in the middle of nowhere, developed rapidly after the Civil War.

With the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, the mining of forests and iron ore, the connection of canals and railways, the city of Chicago, with a population of 350,000 in just a few decades, is the largest meat trading market in the United States and even the world, and has the reputation of "the world's slaughterhouse".

Chicago's development is enough to make the cities of the East African Kingdom feel like they are embarrassed, and the three cities of the entire Central Province (the first town, Dar es Salaam, and Bagamoyo) together can barely reach half of Chicago's population, and the United States has this appeal as the first choice for immigrants from all over the world, bringing together immigrants from all over the world, Britain, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Germany, ...... Including Italians, Chinese, Indians, and the lowest status blacks at this time.

As early as 1865, the Hashingen Bank was operating in the city of Chicago, but the development of the Hashingen Chicago branch could only be described as unremarkable, and the distance from the central business district in downtown Chicago was not conducive to the business of employees.

Many businessmen and Chicagoans choose to do business in the city center, but with the rise of the Black Ringen Bank in Europe, the popularity of the Black Ringen Bank in North America has also increased significantly, even if the location is a little poor, and more people choose to take out loans in the Chicago branch.

For this poor location, the Chicago branch also thought about developing in a different place, but was rejected by the North American headquarters in New York.

The reason given by the North American headquarters in New York is also very simple, the land price in Xicheng is very cheap compared to the city center, and you don't need to spend more money here, you can save money.

But this argument is obviously untenable, and after buying a large piece of land in Xicheng District, the Heixingen Bank carried out a large-scale renovation of the area, and the cost of the renovation was enough to buy a good enough lot in the center of the city.

And the North American headquarters of Hexingen Bank is not short of money at all, as North America, which is second only to Europe in terms of economy, Heixingen Bank is developing here rapidly, and even more smoothly than Europe, where Heixingen Bank fully exerts the financial attributes that a bank should have.

In order to show its financial strength and gain the trust of depositors, the North American headquarters in New York built an extremely luxurious reinforced concrete seven-story building with elevators in Manhattan.

In the United States, Germans are a huge group, and the Germans generally have a high level of education and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, just like the fraud industry that floods the United States, such as making counterfeit money, making fake accounts, applying for fake certificates, and high-end financial fraud, most of them are almost certainly Germans.

Of course, these industries have a certain level of education or some skills, and German immigrants who have universalized compulsory education have a natural advantage, like Italy, can only do menial work such as gangsters.

And the Germans also have a characteristic, a little mixed up want to go back to their hometown to show off, so that many German rich businessmen and rich people like to deposit money in the Heixingen Bank, in addition to cordial, it is convenient to return to Germany after taking the Heixingen Bank's cheque directly in Europe to exchange, the same is true for ordinary Germans, when sending money to their families, they also directly choose the Heixingen Bank, which can save a lot of trouble, such as the language barrier.

In 1860, there were more than 250 German-language newspapers and periodicals in the United States, and in 1871, 80 percent of non-English publications in the United States were German-language newspapers and magazines.

Therefore, the Germans in this period were quite powerful in the United States, especially after the reunification of Germany, the United States had to think about it even if it wanted to promote the assimilation policy.

All in all, the Heshingen Bank was not short of money at all, and other city banks at the same time as the Chicago branch were also built in luxury business districts, with the exception of the Chicago branch.

This kind of perverse decision made Odyssey very annoyed at the beginning, what kind of high housing prices are all excuses, it must be that the people in the New York headquarters were kicked in the head by donkeys.

Today, the Odyssey was uncharacteristically glorified by the New York headquarters, and at the same time sympathetic to the tragic plight of his normally swaggering Chicago counterparts, so much so that he drank a few more drinks tonight.

Most of Chicago's buildings are made of wood from the Wisconsin forests, and even its roads and sidewalks are made of planks, cheap wood is squandered by Chicagoans, and most of the city houses poor immigrants are housed in dilapidated shacks, and even the houses of the more affluent citizens are often made of wood. So much so that when the Chicago branch was built, the price of masonry building materials was much higher than that of other cities, after all, the demand was small and the scale of production could not be raised.

It has been raining in Chicago since July, and in early September, the Chicago Tribune, the city's most prominent newspaper, criticized the city for being made up of "fire traps," adding that many of the buildings were "fake and shingle," but that still went unnoticed.

Today, Chicago suddenly burst into flames, and at the same time there were forest fires in many places around Chicago, and the cause of the fire is unknown.

(End of chapter)