Chapter 595

Chapter 595: Capital

Haigang City

Haigang City is the most open-minded place in the Huaxia Federation, with excellent environment and the best deep-water port of this era. Merchants from all directions gather here, bringing various cultures.

The liveliest place in Haigang City now is the stock exchange. Despite wars happening all over the world, the stock market is even more bustling. Stocks related to war fluctuate greatly, creating myths of wealth every day, but also causing many people to lose everything they have.

Lin Jiang spent two days at the stock exchange and then gave up the opportunity to make money because he thought it was too complicated and he might lose everything if he joined. This had nothing to do with his skills in trading stocks, but there were some very worrying things involved.

After staying in Haigang City for two months, Lin Jiang realized that this era was very different from Blue Star, as the size of the world here, like the countries in Huaxia, was much bigger than all of Blue Star.

The war was not going to end soon, as the countries involved still had plenty of resources left. This was not just Lin Jiang’s opinion, but the general agreement in society.

After considering different options, Lin Jiang decided to invest in the movie industry, a growing field in Huaxia which had started only a few decades ago. Sound movies were replacing silent films.

He was attracted to this industry because of its potential for huge profits. A successful movie could bring in a lot of money for a film company.

Lin Jiang used some of his saved gold to start a movie company. There were already many such companies in Haigang City, with new ones opening and closing every day.

Many companies were closing down, leading to job losses for directors and cameramen. Lin Jiang spent a month talking to these unemployed individuals and eventually formed the first crew for his company.

For his first movie, Lin Jiang chose to make a romance film as it had a large audience and fewer risks compared to films that might upset the authorities.

Instead of using stories from Blue Star, Lin Jiang found plenty of material in the ancient history and language of Huaxia, dating back over five thousand years.

In the first movie, Lin Jiang was very interested and involved in every aspect, such as writing, acting, costumes, and props. For Lin Jiang, it was like being in a real-life show.

During that time, most movies only took two to three months to finish, so they were usually hastily made. People’s standards were not very high, mainly because they didn’t know what a high-quality movie should be like. However, for Lin Jiang’s first movie, it took a whole year to complete.

A year later, a love movie similar to "Liang Zhu" became popular in Haigang City. It was shown in all six cinemas in the city and sold out every time. It even attracted buyers from other places looking to purchase the film. Lin Jiang became famous overnight and rose to the top of the film industry in Haigang City with just one movie.

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After making money, Lin Jiang not only started preparing for his second movie but also began building his team. He didn’t just want to be a film tycoon; he aimed to stand at the peak of this era, controlling his destiny. So, the film company was just a source of income for him.

Although Haigang City was prosperous, there were also many poor people struggling in places like the train station, bus station, and port.

Lin Jiang easily took in over a hundred orphans, ranging from as young as three or four to as old as eleven or twelve. He provided them with enough food, a safe place to stay, arranged for teachers to educate them, and taught them some martial arts skills, instilling loyalty to himself.

Despite martial arts being in decline during that era, they had not disappeared entirely. In the upper echelons of society, there was still a significant market for Martial Arts Masters. They were considered the best bodyguards and even formed elite strike teams in some military units. Martial arts were just no longer mainstream in society.

Lin Jiang also trained a group of finance professionals, as his company was sure to grow in the future. He couldn’t oversee everything himself, so financial management was crucial. In fact, these orphans would become the backbone of his companies in the future, but for now, they were too young to handle such responsibilities.

After the first movie became a hit, the film company started working on three more movies at the same time. Lin Jiang wasn’t as involved, but his team already had experience and didn’t need him to worry.

Over the next year, the three movies were released one after another, still very popular, breaking box office records repeatedly. Lin Jiang was no longer a newcomer in the movie industry, he had become a big shot. His four movies earned more than forty movies combined.

Various powerful and shady figures started targeting Lin Jiang. Instead of bluntly rejecting them, Lin Jiang personally dealt with them in tricky negotiations, exchanging company shares for benefits. He even had to resort to using force a few times, causing several underground gang leaders to mysteriously die.

Several months later, Lin Jiang established a second company that produced film. The booming movie market created a huge demand, especially with the rapidly increasing number of camera factories needing film.

Lin Jiang focused heavily on research and development at the film factory. At that time, the Huaxia Federation was still grappling with an economic crisis, with many factories closing down and millions left unemployed. Talent became very affordable, and Lin Jiang set the goal for them to develop color film instead of the current black and white film.

A year later, using his film company and film factory as collateral, Lin Jiang took out a five million Huaxia coin loan from the bank, setting a new personal loan record.

With the loan money, Lin Jiang heavily invested in acquiring a food processing factory and turned it into a canned food factory. He did this because he had forged connections with some powerful figures through a female star he promoted in his movies. Given the current situation with food control on the battlefield, this move seemed risky.

When someone stepped in, everything changed. The materials needed were readily available, and the factory was quickly set up. Lin Jiang hired a few expert technicians, offering them high salaries and delicious food and drink, to help solve some technical challenges, such as preventing food spoilage.

These technologies were not groundbreaking, and they were solved in just half a year. With the help of a popular actress promoted by a movie company, and by winning over the big shots in the Huaxia Federation military, the first client of the canned food factory came from a military order.

"Capital, from the day it was born, oozes dirty blood from every pore."

Looking at the bustling factory, Lin Jiang sighed. In three years, he had risen from obscurity in Haigang City to becoming a millionaire, with three highly profitable companies under his belt.

However, this whole process was filled with sin and bloodshed. The actress promoted by the movie company had become a socialite in Haigang City’s upper class. The workers at the film factory endured the toxicity of chemicals, while the canned food factory workers toiled hard daily for meager pay just enough to fill their stomachs.

"This is the primitive accumulation of capital, with very few coming out on top, just like me."

Lin Jiang shook his head, pushing away his doubts. His business empire was just beginning, and his goals were ambitious.

In recent years, Lin Jiang’s current goal had become clear – to control a country or even the world. With rapid advancements in science and technology, amidst a technological revolution, it was just a matter of time before forbidden weapons would be developed. Lin Jiang was unsure how these weapons could combat different levels of cultivators after the spiritual energy recovery.

However, Lin Jiang could foresee that the conflict between cultivators and ordinary people would be very prominent. In the era of cultivation, cultivators didn’t see ordinary people as equals. Countless ordinary people died in the wars, and now it is the era where ordinary people are in power. Will they agree?

Therefore, conflicts are inevitable. Among the people who are currently sleeping, there are those who are most important to Lin Jiang. Naturally, he has to plan for them to ensure that they will not be taken to the laboratory for experiments when they wake up.