America 1881: Legend of the West

"What? Antitrust? Who did it?"

Rockefeller's eyes almost popped out.

The federal Antitrust Law was indeed promulgated in 1890, but so far no one has dared to pass this bill to prosecute monopoly giants such as Rockefeller.

The reason is simple. Since McKinley came to power, all policies have been tilted towards the big plutocrats who helped him come to power.

It is really impossible to bring down these giants with a single complaint.

It can range from bidding farewell to your career, or it can range from disappearing from the world.

There are too few brave people who know that they cannot do something but do it anyway.

This time it was Roosevelt, the then governor of New York State, who took action.

The person who asked him to take action was Chen Jianqiu.

He made an appointment with Roosevelt to go fishing.

Strictly speaking, fishing is a type of hunting.

The hunting instinct is always engraved in a man’s bones, which is one of the reasons why fishing is so fascinating.

Roosevelt's hobby, besides mountain climbing, was hunting.

Therefore, fishing is also one of his favorites.

Chen Jianqiu drove his "Ford" car and drove Roosevelt to a bend in the Hudson River.

There are some bumps in the road.

Chen Jianqiu put the fishing box and fishing rod in the back seat, making a clanging sound.

"Why don't we ride horses? Where's your precious black carrot?" Roosevelt asked while rocking in the passenger seat.

"He is quite old. I have circled a pasture for him near Lincoln County and let him and his family roam in it." Chen Jianqiu said while driving the car.

When I met Black Carrot, he looked about three years old from the teeth.

Eighteen years have passed, and Black Radish is already twenty-one years old.

Judging from the age of the horse, it is already considered to be old.

If it had been any other horse, it would have been waiting for death in the horse pen.

But black radish is different.

This guy is still very strong and his speed is still the same as before.

He is his own king in that place.

Every day he runs around the pasture with his "harem beauties" and "children and grandchildren".

"That's a good horse." Roosevelt recalled the first time he saw Black Carrot.

Chen Jianqiu smiled slightly but did not answer.

He drove all the way, his eyes wandering on the river from time to time.

"Why do you keep looking into the river?" Roosevelt asked in confusion.

"I'm looking for fish." Chen Jianqiu replied, "We can't fish where there are no fish."

His sight had crossed the river to the bottom.

In the past two years, Chen Jianqiu's archer talent has been most useful in finding fish, which is much better than the underwater fish detectors of more than a hundred years later.

Although there is a suspicion of cheating, it still has fun.

Because he is still used to looking at the float when fishing.

The car stopped at a place near the mouth of the Hudson River.

Chen Jianqiu picked up a fishing rod from the back seat of the car and threw it into Roosevelt's hand; he picked up another one.

He also took out the fishing box, which mainly contained line sets, fish hooks, boxes containing sequins for bait, and some live shrimps used as bait.

Roosevelt and Chen Jianqiu found a fishing spot along the river beach and started fishing.

The governor is standing, Chen Jianqiu is sitting, one is a lure, and the other is more like a Taiwan fishing lure.

"I have indeed wanted to take action against these guys for a long time, but I always felt that the time was not yet ripe. Why did you suddenly think of taking action now?"

The governor swung the pole out.

He turned the wheel, causing the sequins to move on the horizontal surface, like a living little fish.

"If you want to trip up Rockefeller, it won't happen overnight. You must first test the public's reaction."

Chen Jianqiu put the shrimp on the fishhook, threw it out, then sat down and looked at the float.

"This is a good idea, but won't it alert the enemy?" Roosevelt asked.

"This snake never thinks that he is prey. He thinks that he is a python. In fact, he is indeed a python." Chen Jianqiu said, "Don't McKinley like to play this trick? I will send it intact. To his allies."

"Ally? McKinley's attitude is really interesting. His policies are in favor of monopoly capital. Moreover, as far as I know, he has recently become very close to Rockefeller, who is likely to significantly improve McKinley's next election. sponsorship."

Roosevelt still took the trouble to search the water with sequins.

"I doubt he made a deal with McKinley."

"There is no doubt that this is the case. Rockefeller helped McKinley campaign, and McKinley helped Rockefeller deal with me."

Chen Jianqiu's fishing rod is mounted on a homemade wooden pole, which is much more leisurely than Roosevelt's.

He picked up a small stone from the ground and played with it in his hand.

"How did you know?" Roosevelt turned around and asked Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu chuckled: "Do you think there is anything in New York that you can hide from me?"

Roosevelt nodded.

He knew that Chen Jianqiu was right.

You never know where the plainclothes agents from the Border Detective Agency are hiding.

The detective agency now maintains a long-term cooperative relationship with the New York State government to target some problems within the state that the police cannot solve.

"Henry Taft is a good prosecutor, and his brother William Taft has a very good relationship with me. I don't want anything to happen to him." Roosevelt said with concern.

"Touch him under my nose, unless that person is crazy." Chen Jianqiu sneered.

The two people continued fishing, one was turning the wheel, the other was staring at the float, one was moving, the other was still, both waiting for the prey to take the bait.

"Chen, then again, shouldn't your Western Railway Company also be sued?" Roosevelt suddenly said in a half-joking tone.

"Tear it down, whatever you want, I don't want to take care of this crappy company for a long time. You'd better let the US government nationalize it so that I can worry less." Chen Jianqiu's answer was straightforward, "I might as well concentrate on my business." arms."

Anyway, they are all low-priced stocks collected during the trough period, and whoever offers the right price will take them.

There are many things and low profits. Apart from providing a large number of jobs, there is really no other high value.

It is better to cash out part of the high position and continue to resell arms.

Roosevelt did not expect Chen Jianqiu to answer so simply, and it was difficult to say anything at the moment.

Chen Jianqiu's buoy suddenly disappeared.

"Hey, my fish is here!" Chen Jianqiu suddenly lifted the pole and stood up.

The pole bent into a large arc, trying to break and then keep breaking.

Chen Jianqiu began to slide fish along the river bank, consuming the strength of the fish in the water.

The game didn't last long before the fish surfaced and was dragged ashore by Chen Jianqiu.

It's a sea bass.

"Let's have extra dinner tonight." Chen Jianqiu smiled at Roosevelt.

As a member of the Taft family, Henry Taft had very good political genes.

However, unlike his brother, who served as Deputy Minister of Justice, at a young age he was a little less tactful and a little more aggressive.

With Roosevelt's support, as district attorney, he fired the first shot at Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company without mercy.

The stone tycoon was surprised when he received the court summons, but he was not panicked.

He organized an excellent team of lawyers and began preparing to go to court with Henry.

Both sides began to present evidence and debate around the monopolistic behavior of the Standard Oil Trust.

After a few rounds of fighting, they found that the other side was not as vulnerable as they thought.

The Standard Oil Trust did not spiral as Henry Taft had imagined; nor did the prosecutors relent as Rockefeller expected.

It was also the first time for the state court to encounter this kind of lawsuit, so it did not dare to draw a conclusion easily.

So it became a long-running tug-of-war.

At the same time, major media began to pay attention to this lawsuit.

The people suddenly realized that such a monster had appeared in their country.

Their logic is quite simple.

No wonder my life is so difficult, no wonder gas costs remain high, it turns out that all the wealth has been grabbed by one person.

What kind of monopoly do you, Rockefeller, have? Do you want to be emperor?

And those private owners who were deeply harmed by the monopoly began to criticize Rockefeller, believing that the tycoon was greedy, cruel, and stingy, and drove them out of the oil industry.

Rockefeller suddenly fell into the center of public opinion.

But the oil tycoon wasn't impressed at all.

He felt that there was no need to deal with these media, so he didn't even give a word of feedback.

However, the lawsuit still involved a lot of Rockefeller's energy.

He originally wanted to use his advantages in raw materials and funds to build several explosive factories to disgust Chen Jianqiu.

But then, he would have no time to do this anymore.

Fortunately, McKinley took over the move for him.

He organized a team of people and began to conduct a private investigation into Chen Jianqiu's company and himself.