Chapter 40: The Arms Dealer’s First Step (First Update—Please Bookmark)

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Black-market profits can bring you wealth, but they cannot bring you status. Only money earned in the light of day can grant you status, and status will secure your wealth—even if that wealth began in darkness.

Li Yi'an could no longer remember where he had first seen or sensed those words, but the truth of them was undeniable.

No one cares how filthy your first fortune was. People only laugh at you when you fall. Place two gold bars side by side, and no one can tell which is clean and which is dirty.

In the eyes of the world, there has only ever been gold.

Yet only clean gold can bring status. That was why Li Yi'an had acquired Karl Metal Company. The factory was not merely a vehicle for laundering his money; it was the starting point of his enterprise, and perhaps even the foundation of the future North Borneo Company.

For that reason, on the day after arriving in New York, he drove straight to Karl Metal Company.

Compared with its former desolation, the company was now bustling. From a distance, black smoke could already be seen pouring from the factory chimneys. At that time, those dark columns represented not pollution, but power, modernity, and wealth.

The factory had resumed production.

After Karl sold the factory, all its problems vanished. Contractors who had been struggling beneath the weight of overwhelming orders were only too willing to pass some of that work on to Karl Metal Company. Thus, within a few short days, the factory had returned to operation. It had only a few hundred skilled workers, but at least it was moving in the right direction.

The moment he stepped into the office building, Li Yi'an sensed that the place was different from before. The security guards stood in the lobby, staring straight ahead. There was no denying that these men, who had once served as the muscle of the German-American Bund before the war, cut an imposing figure.

Whether they were Nazis was something Li Yi'an did not care about in the slightest. What he needed was a group of armed guards in the prime of life, not a bunch of old men. All of them held only American green cards, which had allowed them to avoid conscription, while their pro-German backgrounds had left them shunned by American society. Even among the company's technicians, there were quite a few people like them.

They were all marginalized men. Why should there be anything wrong with employing them? In Li Yi'an's view, the more thoroughly a person had been rejected by society, the more likely he was to follow him to North Borneo in the future.

After all, he had already made up his mind to dismantle American factories and relocate them to North Borneo. The future North Borneo Company certainly could not limit itself to plantations.

Industrialization—how was it to be achieved?

By relocating entire factories. That was the best solution.

At last, the elevator reached the sixth floor. The doors had barely opened when Karl's voice reached his ears.

“See that, boss? It took me less than a month to restore production at the factory, and we’ve already taken on orders worth 1.7 million dollars. They’re subcontracted orders, so the profit is limited, but at least our factory has survived…”

Seeing Karl’s excitement, Li Yi'an nodded.

“I knew handing the company over to you was the right decision. With you here, there was never any doubt.”

Of course there had never been any doubt. Although the company had gone bankrupt under Karl’s management, it had not been because of his business acumen. It had been the result of the circumstances, compounded by his identity as a Nazi sympathizer.

The broader economic climate had still been suffering under the shadow of the Great Depression. As for his status as a Nazi sympathizer, that was merely the excuse Americans had used to exclude him.

Li Yi'an prided himself on knowing how to put the right people in the right places.

Still, Karl seemed to be getting a little too pleased with himself.

So he continued:

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“However, we can’t be satisfied with subcontracted orders alone. The profits are small, and control remains in other people’s hands. We need to develop new lines of business and launch new products!”

“You’re right, boss. Only by developing new products and opening up new businesses can we survive!”

Karl nodded in agreement. By now, he was bound tightly to the company.

“Karl, tell me—what is the most popular product at the moment?”

“The most popular product?”

After thinking for a moment, Karl replied:

“Arms.”

“That’s right. Arms.”

Li Yi'an answered without hesitation.

“In wartime, the most sought-after and most profitable goods are weapons, not anything else. So we’re going into the arms market!”

As he spoke, Li Yi'an drew a stack of blueprints from the cardboard tube he had brought with him.

“This is a submachine gun I designed. It will be our first product.”

What use were blueprints?

They were meant to be manufactured, of course.

In fact, when he acquired Karl Metal Company, he had already decided to enter the arms market. He was a little late, but if he seized the opportunity, there was still plenty of room for success.

After all, the profits in arms manufacturing were exceptionally high.

“This is… a submachine gun?”

Karl stared at the drawings in astonishment.

“Are these really the only blueprints?”

“Yes.”

“How is that possible?”

Karl might once have been a millionaire, but as the former owner of the company, he was no stranger to metalworking and machinery production. He was also familiar with weapons. A submachine gun contained so many parts—how could a few dozen sheets of drawings possibly be enough?

“Why wouldn’t it be possible?”

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“But, boss, who are we going to sell it to?”

Karl thought for a moment before continuing:

“If this had been last year, we might have been able to participate in the bidding for a new submachine gun. But the new weapon has already entered production. Even if you’ve designed a better submachine gun, the army won’t accept it now.”

Listening to him, Li Yi'an shook his head.

“Karl, you’ve misunderstood one thing!”

He pointed at the blueprints.

“This submachine gun consists of only seventeen parts. Nearly half of them are stamped components. Not only is it easy to manufacture, its cost is low beyond belief. It will certainly be cheaper than the British Sten gun. Do you know what rules this world?”

With the corner of his mouth raised, Li Yi'an said:

“Cheapness!”

Then, emphasizing the word, he continued:

“As long as you’re cheap enough, you’ll never lack buyers. Why did the British choose the Sten? Because it was cheap. This gun has better performance, greater reliability, and it’s even cheaper. So I believe it will definitely find a market!”

The reason Li Yi'an was so confident was that America might appear wealthy, but in reality, it was poor as well. Otherwise, it would never have fitted tanks with automobile transmissions and engines. To put it plainly, America might look extravagantly rich, but it was economizing just like everyone else. The only difference was that it had no better options. Whenever a cheaper solution was available, it would choose the cheaper one first.

There was no other principle.

Cheapness was king.

“This…”

Flipping through the blueprints before him, Karl said doubtfully:

“Will it really fire?”

Li Yi'an laughed.

“What do you think?”

The boss’s rhetorical question left Karl momentarily stunned.

“We won’t know until we build one. By the way, ever since you acquired the company, reporters have been trying to interview you.”