The journey starts from the Titanic

"Did I remember it wrong?" Situ Nan thought to himself, "It shouldn't be, maybe the place is very remote or it is not called a town but a certain river or hillside in Kang Luo. Look for it again!"

The effort paid off. Finally, Situ Nan and the others finally heard about a place called Conroe, a small village 28 miles north of Houston, from a desolate farmer.

It took 5 US dollars for the bankrupt farmer to agree to be Situ Nan's guide. For the convenience of Situ Nan, he paid another 10 US dollars to hire a carriage.Although the guide fee of $5 is a bit expensive, they really couldn't find this remote village named Kang Luo without this guy Situ Nan!

After crossing a small river, the bankrupt farmer pointed to a village in front and said, "That is Conro. Welcome to Conro. Of course, thank you for your generosity."

He smiled and pointed to a house in front of him and said, "Would you like to sit down with me? That is my house."

"Okay!" Situ Nan said straightforwardly, and didn't mind being robbed of $5 by the guy in front of him.When the goal is reached, my plan is half done. What a small 5 dollars!

Along the way, Situ Nan found that the agricultural harvest here was not very good, and many farmland had been abandoned, so he asked curiously: "Is the land not cultivated?"

"Hey, I blamed me for losing my mind for a while, ran to gamble, and deserted the land!" The farmer in front of me said regretfully.

It turned out that his name is Gudas, of Mexican origin. The farm he ran before had a good harvest. Unfortunately, he was tempted to fall in love with gambling and lost all his savings for several years.

Gamblers are like this. The more they lose, the more they can't extricate themselves. They always want to fight again and win back with a profit.

So in order to win back, Gudas, who was unwilling to win, secretly took out the land deeds from his wife, and ended up in a mess. When his wife found out, she was angry and ran away with them.

Poor guy, his family broke down because of gambling.For people like Gudas, Situ Nan felt that he was completely self-conscious and not worthy of sympathy.

But isn't this just your chance?Situ Nan then asked, "Who owns those lands now?"

"In the hands of the casino, they couldn't find someone to take over the farm, so they have been abandoned until now." Gudas said with a wry smile.

"Well, I want to take over your farm. I'll give you money. How about you take the title deed back and sell it to me? So you can also settle your debts." Situ Nan said sincerely, feeling like full of Seduced wolf grandma.

"Really? Are you sure you want my land? That piece of land is 2,000 acres, a huge piece!" Gudas asked excitedly as if grabbing a life-saving straw.

Damn, such a large piece of land has been lost, it's really a prodigal!Sure enough, I'm selling Ye Tian, ​​don't feel bad!

"Yes, I plan to run some land sales here." Situ Nan said.

With the help of Situ Nan, Gedas took back the title deed from the casino the next day, and then sold the 2000 acres of land to Situ Nan at a price of 80 US dollars per acre for a total of 160,000 US dollars. In addition to resolving the debt, Gedas Das had a lot of money left.

Situ Nan also got what he wanted, but it was not enough!He wanted to buy the entire area of ​​the oilfield, so he said to Gudas: "Can you do me a favor? I like this piece of land, in addition to your land, I want to buy nearby If you buy all the places, the price is 80 US dollars per acre. If you receive an acre, I will give you 1 US dollars in benefits. How about?" Situ Nan said.

But in order to dispel Gudas’s suspicion, Situ Nan could not be too enthusiastic, so he went on to say: “This promise is valid before I leave Houston. You have one month. Of course, because I am not in a hurry to use this land. Therefore, the original owner does not have to move out immediately after the land is sold, and the dealer in the field can also wait for the harvest."

"Okay, wait for my good news!" Gudas said, as if he wanted to act immediately.This is how people are, and they have been decadent for a long time, and once they have an opportunity, they will hold on tightly.Gudas is such a person.

When he came back, Hayes asked incomprehensibly: "Stoneney, are you going to be a farmer? Otherwise, why do you buy so much land? I don’t think it’s a good land. I’ve worked on his farm, that’s not hiding from me.”

"Bingo! You are right, I have to think like this, you know? Europe is about to fight, and the prices of good crops will rise." Situ Nan thought he had found a good excuse.

However, He Wenxiu behind him dismissed it disapprovingly. For such a thing, he saw Situ Nan doing the same thing at the Santa Branch in Los Angeles.

Having been with Situ Nan for two years, He Wenxiu knows how shrewd Situ Nan is. He has never been profitable or early.

Only rough men like Hayes believe in such nonsense as the farmer.

These things are related to Situ Nan’s secrets. He cannot easily reveal it. In fact, there is a book in Situ Nan’s Los Angeles home. It records a bunch of messy codes. The records are what Situ Nan has kept recalling over the past two years. Important events in historical development, there are also some very small things, in short, you can remember as many as you can, because with the passage of time, human memory will slowly disappear.That book is too important, so Situ Nan hid him very well, even He Wenxiu didn't know there was such a thing.(I guess he didn't know what he saw!)

Next, Situ Nan kept going around in Houston. He slowly discovered that Houston is not so good now, but this kind of chaos is full of vitality, and in some respects, it is not compared to Los Angeles. Inferior.Here is the cotton trading center in the southwest, with developed transportation, rich resources, and convenient ports, which will surely develop in time.Unfortunately, I am not strong enough now, otherwise Houston is also a good place to invest.

After the fifth day, Gudas finally came to Situ Nan.This guy really has some skill. With his three-inch tongue, he persuaded other landlords in Kangluo to sell nearly 4,000 acres of land to Situ Nan. Seeing his excitement, he should make a lot of the difference. .

After another ten days, Gudas came to the door again, this time he finally got Conroe's remaining 6000 acres of land.

Now most of the land in Kangluo Town is owned by Situ Nan. He spent 960,000 U.S. dollars for this, and of course Gudas’s 10,000 U.S. dollar benefit fee. Well, this guy is a good dog, and he is an expert in this regard. , Situ Nan decided that he would have to bring this dog leg with him in the next purchase.

Since then, the Kangluo Oilfield, the second largest oil field in Texas after the East Texas Oilfield, has fallen into the hands of Situ Nan.

To win a super-large oil field for US$960,000 is really a price of cabbage. Although the technique is not bloody and black!It's really too dark!

However, apart from Situ Nan, no one is willing to spend millions of dollars to buy such a large piece of land. If there is no oil, this one million dollars is almost wiped out.In fact, the price given by Situ Nan is much higher than under normal circumstances. This is why so many landlords readily sell their land to Situ Nan. They can buy more land in other places when they get the money. Big and better land has started again.

In a word, everyone is not a fool, and everyone takes what they need. The only difference is that Situ Nan has memories of past lives and knows that this place has oil fields.

Taking a step back, these landlords will sell them to other wildcat prospectors or other oil companies even if they don't sell them to Situ Nan, and the prices given are almost the same.

In order to avoid waste of land, Situ Nan also sent people to run a farm and planted some crops. He also made a lot of money in World War I.

Chapter 11 East Texas Oil Field Gets Hand

1901 Since the "spindle top" self-injection field appeared in the Beaumont area of ​​southern Texas, the unfamiliar word oil has entered every life in Texas since then, and there has been more than half a century of oil search fever. With the rise of Texas, many farmers hope that oil can be drilled under their land.

More than ten years have passed, and the oil craze in Texas has never cooled down. Every once in a while, some oil fields are always discovered. In general, some super oil fields have not yet been discovered.

Texas is vast and sparsely populated, animal husbandry is well developed, and cotton cultivation is also good. With a little logging, there is no more industry.

Yes, here is different from other parts of the United States. The people here are particularly conservative. The farmers and ranchers rely on the land for their livelihoods. They don’t like industry very much. So while the industry in other regions is developing rapidly, Texas is still waiting. Development place.

Due to the topography, there are many farms and ranches in the western plains of Texas, while the eastern part is a forest area that retains a backward state.

But oil seems to have changed Texas. Since the emergence of only oil wells, those landowners suddenly felt that it was a good choice to go to diamond oil, so "wild cat prospectors" appeared in many off-travel places.

The oil exploration work here is accustomed to it, and you will not be too taboo. You will become prosperous when you drill into an oil well, and then a large number of wildcats will follow, and finally the big eastern oil companies will follow.In fact, the large and small private oil merchants sell oil to large companies, such as Standard Oil Company, Shell Oil Company and so on.

Although the oil exploration here is very open and flooding, what Situ Nan needs is not exploration, but to buy the land directly, or rent it for a long time, so he does not want to fan out, the necessary disguise is still needed.

Situ Nan's current identity is an agricultural businessman from California. He owns a large ranch in Los Angeles and a meat product company. This time he came to Texas to invest in animal husbandry.Since the oil development in the southern region was relatively early and there are many powerful oil companies there, there is little chance in Situ Nan in southern Texas.His goal is to exclude other areas of southern Texas.

After coming to Dallas from Houston, Situ Nan carefully planned the land purchase plan. After all, it was an investment of several million dollars. Once the information was leaked, it would add more difficulties.

For example, someone preached that a silly person in Los Angeles came to buy ranches everywhere with US dollars. There are a lot of money and people are stupid. Come here, those landlords who get the news will definitely take the opportunity to increase the price, no doubt the cost will increase a lot.

Or how long do you think someone will buy land with millions of dollars?Is this guy looking for oil? Is there oil in his underground?It is not good for these to attract the attention of the big oil companies.

Low-key is the kingly way, Situ Nan pursues secretly, don't shoot guns!

According to Situ Nan’s plan, the group of four of them was divided into two groups, Situ Nan and Hayes in one group, Gudas and He Wenxiu in a group. He Wenxiu mainly supervised Gudas for fraud. The specific actions were determined by Ge Das is responsible, and He Wenxiu can make the decision without exceeding the price set by Situ Nan.

Gudas now knows that Situ Nan, a young man who actually bought land for millions of dollars and explored oil, is really amazed by Situ Nan's generous efforts. Such a big action can participate in it. He understands that this is Situ Nan’s trust in him and it is also The test, if you have a good performance and follow the millionaires, don’t you believe you can’t make a comeback?Gudas thought to himself that he was full of self-confidence now. He seemed to see those farmers selling their land under his own second tongue, and then Gudas could earn the expenses.

The main reason for this arrangement is that Texas is too big and there are too many oil fields. If you deal with those farmers one by one, you don't know how long it will take.

In December 1913, despite the heavy snowfall in the north, the climate in Texas was still warm.

Their first stop came to Lange Township, a sleepy rural town in the west of Fort Worth. This is because the locals did not know that there is a wealth of oil buried in the ground, so it was easy to be bought by Situ Nan and the others for 5,000 acres. The land cost less than US$500,000, and there are some long-term land leases. The livestock industry here is developed, and some farmers do not want to sell the pastures, so Situ Nan does not buy a lot of land.

But there was a lot of land with them. Situ Nan was more satisfied. After a short stay in Lange Township, Situ Nan and the others came to the small town of Buckburnet in northern Texas.The situation here is similar to that in Lanjie Town, where Situ Nan spent 300,000 US dollars to acquire 2,000 acres of land.

The same situation includes Mejia in the east of Waco, Luling in the east of Austin, Monahans at the end of West Texas, Great Lakes—Alpine County, 200 miles west of San Antonio, and so on. In the open plains of Texas, a total of 20,000 acres of land were purchased at a cost of more than $1 million.

It really cost money. In just three months, more than three million US dollars were spent in exchange for land transaction contracts.