Chapter Thirty-Three: Imperial Petroleum

  The boss's words immediately set the Chinese workers whispering among themselves. People who could run to Australia, thousands of miles away, to pan for gold wouldn't care about trivial things like murder and arson. Panning for gold is making money, being a mercenary is also making money, and it can make even more money, so why not? In these times, human life isn't worth much either. For workers like them who are struggling to make ends meet all year round, just having enough food to eat is already good enough. If there's an opportunity to get rich, they'd risk their lives without hesitation.

  As a result, with the exception of a very small number, the vast majority of Chinese laborers chose to become mercenaries.

  Mr. Yang nodded in satisfaction, of course he didn't expect to get a loyal army just like that, this still needs to be matched with later brainwashing, material rewards, and best of all some divine signs to create personal worship, anyway he has plenty of tricks to deal with these little brats who can't even recognize characters.

  Of course, he doesn't have the time for that now. First, he has to train these scattered Chinese workers into an army. This task is left to his security guards brought from Britain. The lobstermen still have considerable combat effectiveness in this era, especially in terms of discipline. Without strict discipline, they can't even manage a firing squad. Give them half a year to turn these workers into machines first.

  As for the equipment of these people, it's easy to handle. Each person will be given a high-quality imitation lobster suit. Anyway, they won't need to fight, and this uniform is still very useful for intimidating others. The rifle will naturally be the Lee-Enfield. In fact, at that time, the British army was using the Lebel rifle, but these Lee-Enfields were made by Bofors himself. As for other things like hand grenades, mortars, and machine guns, they are all essential. For now, we'll just make do with those two Gruson 57mm cannons, and wait until Miss Bofors' new 75mm cannon comes out before replacing them.

  In this way, his military base was formally established. Those Chinese laborers who did not participate in the mercenary army served as logistical personnel, building houses, repairing roads, herding sheep and even opening up wasteland for farming. The mercenaries from the Ambrella company were responsible for patrolling the territory and ensuring the smooth flow of transportation lines, while also clearing out the few remaining indigenous people in the area. As for the British security guards, apart from the 100 who continued to protect him as he lived a life of luxury in Western Australia, the remaining 100 served as officers leading the 500 Chinese mercenary soldiers.

  It wasn't until the arrival of the merchant ship carrying military supplies that Boss Yang announced his investment failure in Australia, but this couldn't shake his determination to develop Western Australia. The employees of Yang Mining Company would continue to stay and explore for minerals, while he, with such a noble status, could not possibly stay in such a remote and impoverished place, and naturally had to return to Europe.

  When the Parrot arrived in London, news of his failed investments in Western Australia and his loss of a large sum of money had already spread throughout Europe, causing many people to snicker. However, their laughter was short-lived, as soon after, this mysterious nouveau riche from China landed a big deal.

  After traveling tens of thousands of kilometers for inspection, the British Admiralty finally confirmed the value of diesel engines. The Swedish company Yang Power Systems and Armstrong Company jointly received orders for two diesel-powered destroyers. Although they were only two small experimental destroyers, this order was significant because it meant that this company, which had just been established for over a year, officially entered the world's largest British naval weapons procurement market.

  More importantly, the British Navy was the wind vane of the whole world at that time. As long as the British Navy used diesel engines, all other navies would stare at this thing, and orders would fly to Yang Feng's hands like snowflakes.

  "Baron Rothschild, are you interested in cooperating to extract oil?" On the deck of the Parrot Shell, Yang Feng, basking in the warm sunshine, asked Baron Rothschild, who had been invited as a guest.

  The advent of the diesel engine had begun to make the originally surplus oil production insufficient, at which time the main oil-producing areas were Baku and the United States, as well as Yenangyaung in Burma. The Middle East, which would later become the world's main supplier of oil, did not yet have any major oil fields. The first large-scale oil field in the Middle East was the Masjed Soleyman Oil Field in Iran, discovered in 1908, and subsequently controlled by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later British Petroleum).

  The goal of this stuff is to make the Middle East's oil a target for countries to compete for decades ahead of time.

  "Yang, do you have a good investment target?" said Lord Rochdale with a smile. This is now the hottest investment opportunity, especially since the Navy started purchasing diesel engines, which has greatly stimulated investors' confidence in the oil industry. Under the sponsorship of countless British tycoons, one expedition after another is rushing to all parts of the world, and even Yang's trip to Western Australia was speculated by many as a search for oil.

  It's no wonder, knowing that he had just built an oil refinery before he left.

  "Of course." Yang Feng said calmly.

  "Western Australia?" Lord Rothschild said with a hint of a smile, it seemed the old fox was too clever for his own good.

  "No, no, Baron, I think you've got me wrong on this point. In Western Australia, I really didn't get anything except for a piece of grazing land that's worthless." Yang Feng said with a bitter face, but then he immediately followed up by saying: "Although I didn't find what I wanted there, I do know of another place where there is a large oil field. You should know about my Jewish friend who died in Russia?"

  This guy is making up stories again.

  Rothschild nodded, Yang's story and his friend's family were well-known in the UK, how could he not know?

  "In fact, the death of that friend of mine was not what I said it was, and they didn't even die in Russia, but in Persia." Yang Feng said in a low, mysterious tone.

  "Persia?" Lord Rothschild exclaimed cooperatively.

  "At that time, he was leading an exploration team there to look for oil, and I was a member of the exploration team. We discovered a large oil field in Persia, but unfortunately, we encountered a group of bandits afterwards, and I was the only survivor." Yang Feng recounted another version of the story with a very melancholic tone.

  Lord Rothschild seemed to have believed it a bit, as for Yang Feng's previous story, except for those little girls who liked fantasy, I estimate that no adult would believe it, especially after Jin Yuan Company's other products were launched on a large scale, this story became even less believable.

  "Are you certain it's a large oil field?" said Lord Rothschild.

  "Baron, you can rest assured that this oil field is enormous beyond imagination. Unfortunately, I don't have the capability to develop it on my own. You should know that opening an oil field there isn't just a matter of having money; but if you join in, it would be different." Yang Feng said very sincerely.

  "And what about the shares?" said Lord Rothschild.

  "One person, half." Yang Feng said.

  "Yang, you should know that what I've invested is not just money." said Lord Rothschild calmly.

  "Your Excellency, Baron, what I invested was not just money." Yang Feng said with a smile.

  "Four six, you six I four."

  "Baron, for people like us, is it necessary to haggle like a street vendor?" Yang Feng said.

  "This raises a question of management rights. If it's 50-50, who makes the decisions in our company?" said Lord Rothschild.

  "Why don't we do it another way? This treasure, if only you and I share it, I think it's a bit unfair to other friends. How about we bring Viktor down here too? We'll each take 40%, and 20% will go to Viktor. That way, if there are any disagreements later on, they'll be easier to resolve." Yang Feng said after thinking for a moment.

  Rothschild looked at him for a moment and shrugged his shoulders saying "Why not?"

  Now that it's settled, of course we're looking for a sucker, and it would be better to find his steward, the vampire! Erik is naturally very interested in this investment. Who doesn't know that investing in oil is extremely profitable? With diesel engines and gasoline engines becoming more widespread, Europe will be filled with cars in no more than two years. If we expand to the sea, the demand for fuel will grow crazily. It can be said that as long as there's an oil field, it's equivalent to having a treasure trove.

  However, he is not foolish with Rothschild either. The condition of cooperation is that Yang Feng must be able to find oil fields, otherwise they will have to compensate for the losses of both families.

  "That's no problem at all," said Mr. Yang, patting his chest, but he also added that from now on, the security of Imperial Oil must be handled by his US-based company, Ambrella.

  Rothschild and the vampires had no objection to this, as the signboard of the British Empire was the largest umbrella for Imperial Oil, and the rest were just some trivial matters such as fire prevention, theft prevention, and bandit prevention. It was much cheaper to use American mercenaries than to recruit from Britain itself, and those Americans were more suitable for this kind of work.

  "Actually, from a geological perspective, Persia won't just have this one oil field. Why don't we just buy the exploration rights for all of Persia's oil?" Yang Feng proposed another suggestion.

  Rothschild and Eric looked at each other, then Eric said, "In that case, I'm afraid we'll have to add the Persian royal family to our collaborators, otherwise it will be difficult to monopolize the oil of the whole of Persia."

  "That's settled then. The three of us will each give up a portion of our shares, and together we'll allocate them to the Persian royal family. If it doesn't exceed 12%, I think it's worth considering," said Yang Feng.

  He's running this oil company not mainly for the money, but rather to make things as complicated as possible. The more people involved, the more disagreements there will be. Without disagreements, how can there be war? And without war, what would his mercenaries do with their free time?

  Thus, a petroleum giant named Imperial Oil was born. Next came the formation of the company, which did not require Yang Feng to worry about it. Rothschild had plenty of talent at his disposal, and soon all legal procedures were completed, an office was set up, and various employees were recruited.