Chapter Fourteen: Wu Dazhu Arrives

  At dawn, the sound of exercise rose in waves. Hatt had already led his old soldier team to start training the staff. Hatt was completely following the pattern of the German Army in training them. For now, it was basic training for queue and physical strength. After Al brought back the rifles, they would train with firearms.

  The exploration and drilling team has been disbanded by Guo Yu, who took his own bonus and left to live a carefree life. Guo Yu plans not to drill for oil in the near future, as two successes can be attributed to luck, but three would be suspicious. He'll let others digest it for a while.

  Guo Yu moved into his own villa, the villa area was very large, it was a closed small villa estate, two kilometers away from the farm workers' district, and was protected by a fence, with security personnel patrolling day and night.

  Currently, only Guo Yu and three women, a few maids and cooks are staying. Guo Yu usually sleeps in Hu Yunyuan's room, occasionally goes to Lisa's room to harass her, but Nizi is still young, although it can be seen that as long as Guo Yu opens his arms, little Nizi will come over by herself, but Guo Yu cannot be too inhumane, the Lunar New Year is approaching soon, and when Nizi turns one year older, he can make his move, hahaha. Someone has become evil, he really knows how to find excuses for himself, and there are less than two months until the Lunar New Year.

  Kuo Yu would usually box for a while and then ride his horse to inspect his territory, satisfying the pent-up energy in his heart as a big landlord.

  On December 24, 1914, the day before Christmas Eve in the Western calendar, Guo Yu met Wu Dazhu at "Hua Fu Zhuang Yuan" in Orange County. Dazhu was somewhat excited to see his master and hurriedly paid respects to Guo Yu.

  "Da Zhu, you've had a tough journey, is everything okay on the road?" Guo Yu comforted Wu Da Zhu.

  "Master, everything is fine on the road. I brought three thousand people, all of whom are young and strong, and have joined the 'Hua Fu Association'. They've also studied at the 'Hua Fu Academy' for a period of time. Some of them were already literate and learned quickly, while others had a poor foundation but worked hard. I thought Master might be able to use them, so I brought them all." said Zhu Zi.

  "You've done very well, how's the situation at home?"

  "Things are going well at home. As you instructed, I've handed over all the household chores to Chen Yougong since my return. You mentioned that we should keep a low profile, so we've been very cautious in our actions and haven't done anything to provoke other powerful interests. With your name behind us, everything has been relatively stable."

  "How is Hua Fu's development going?"

  "It has already set up branches in seventeen counties in Beijing and its surrounding areas, and there are thirty-two places under investigation. It is estimated that by next spring, it will be able to cover the entire Zhili Province. The next step would be to expand beyond the province. However, after expanding beyond the province, the expenses will increase greatly, and the business left behind by Master Wu will be difficult to sustain."

  "Tell me about it in detail," Guo Yu asked with some confusion.

  "This year, most of North China suffered a disaster, and many people who couldn't afford food were left homeless. The 17 Huafu Hall branches in these counties need more than 200,000 yuan per month, which is 2.5 million yuan per year. By next year, there will be 49 branches, requiring 750,000 yuan per month, which has already reached the limit of the proportion you set earlier. If we open branches in other provinces, it won't be enough."

  "Dazhu, you are specifically in charge of this matter, what suggestions do you have? How can we operate this thing well?"

  "You set the standard too high at first, sir. Even ordinary good families only eat mantou, salted vegetables and congee. Chen Yougong and I had discussed it before, but this is the rule you set, we dare not change it. In fact, as long as people can eat a meal without starving, they will be very grateful to you, sir. There's no need to be too good, and the saved money can help more people. Chen Yougong and I had also discussed whether to divide the relief into levels. Those who join the Huafu Association are first-class members, those who work for the association are second-class members, and those with specific duties or special talents can become third-class members. If there are special contributions, they can be promoted to higher levels. Members can eat mantou and salted vegetables, while ordinary people who receive relief but do not join the association will only get congee. Dividing the membership into levels also increases their enthusiasm, and more people join."

  Kuo Yu was somewhat surprised, isn't this the membership system? What a great idea! Only with the motivation to move forward will people work hard and strive for upgrades, actively striving for progress. This is a good idea.

  "Alright, this idea is not bad. You go back and report to Chen Yougong, just say I agree. Let him find some people to refine this idea, categorize it into levels, so that family members can benefit when they reach a certain level. We can also establish a point system, where contributions are rewarded with points, and when you accumulate enough points, you can upgrade to the next level. The gap between levels should be larger as you progress, so it's not easy to get promoted to higher levels." Gu Yu's thinking was led into the mode of upgrading.

  "Still, you're really something, this idea of yours will definitely make the members voluntarily work for the organization, even if it kills them."

  "Alright, the day after tomorrow is Christmas, you go visit Xiaoni and Erzhu first, they miss you. The day after tomorrow we'll all be together to celebrate this foreign holiday."

  "Master, we brought all the antiques with us when we came. Since we chartered a ship, no one else knows about it. The people who moved the goods are our own men. They're now stored in the warehouse of the estate. Would you like to take a look?"

  "Alright, I've got it. Don't worry about it anymore, I'll go take a look myself. You can go now." Then Da Zhu gave Guo Yu a bow and left the study room, being led by the servant to meet Er Zhu and the others.

  Wu Erzhu and Xiaoni had been anxiously waiting for their brother in the living room. When Wu Dazhu came out, Xiaoni exclaimed with joy and ran forward to grab her brother's hand. Erzhu also went forward, calling out "Ge" (brother), standing beside his brother, both of them looking at Dazhu with concern.

  "Alright, alright, you're a big girl now, almost at the age of getting married, and yet you're still so mischievous, aren't you afraid of Father scolding you?" Da Zhu said with a pampering tone as he patted his sister's head.

  "Master wouldn't say that to me, Master is very good to me, even better than Second Brother, humph!" As she spoke, she also wrinkled up her cute little nose at Second Brother.

  Two awkward smiles, said "Brother, let's go eat first," "Right, brother we go eat, you tell us about the journey on the road" Then Xiao Ni pulled Wu Dazhu towards the dining hall.

  Two nights before Christmas, in the dining room of Guo Yu's villa, a large table was filled with exquisite Chinese dishes. Although it was Christmas, Guo Yu didn't plan to eat turkey and cake. At the dinner table were Wu Shi's three siblings, Hu Yunyuan, Lisha, Al, Hadd, Brown, Li Meng, as well as several newly promoted individuals.

  James, Carter and Gill were nominated by Al when the company was established, and several department heads were promoted after investigation. Al is now the general manager of the company, James is in charge of the agricultural department to manage farm production; Carter is in charge of the mining department to manage the oil industry; Gill is in charge of the administrative department, actually similar to the role of logistics; Brown is in charge of the education department.

  Hart and Li Meng were in charge of separate departments. Hart was responsible for the military training of all farm personnel, while Li Meng was in charge of the armed guard corps.

  On Christmas Eve at the Huafu Manor, all the high-ranking officials gathered together. Gu Yu picked up the red wine glass in his hand and stood up: "In the past year, we have made great gains. Our oil field has produced oil and sold it for a good price. Our farm has been established, our team has expanded, and now there are 12 of us who can make it here. I believe that our team will become bigger and bigger, and each of our gains will also increase."

  Then everyone raised their glasses to toast a better new year. Everyone started enjoying the delicious Chinese food, and after dinner, Guo Yu brought out red envelopes, saying they were bonuses for each person. When everyone opened the red envelopes and saw the checks inside, the numbers on them made everyone laugh with joy.

  Kuo Yu took out three jewelry boxes and said to Hu Yunwen, Lisa and Xiaoni: "Beautiful ladies, today is Christmas, I want to give you my gifts, wishing you a younger and more beautiful new year." Then he gave each of them a gift box.

  Huyuanyuan is a string of thumb-sized pearl necklace and pearl earrings, Lisa is a string of platinum diamond necklace, Xiaoni's is a set of diamond brooch and hair accessories.

  Hu Yunwen stepped forward and kissed Guo Yu's face, saying "thank you, sir". Lisa also stepped forward and kissed Guo Yu's mouth, imitating Hu Yunwen by saying "thank you, sir", causing everyone to burst out laughing.

  Xiao Ni stood there, feeling a bit at a loss and unsure of what to do. Guo Yu took the initiative to step forward, gently hugged Xiao Ni, and Xiao Ni's face suddenly turned red. Then, she grabbed the gift and ran upstairs.

  Christmas in 1914 was spent in Orange County, California, and with the advent of New Year's Day, Kuo Yu had to prepare to return home to see his parents.