1850 American Gold Tycoon

With the establishment of the Citizens' Committee, Liang Yao sounded the clarion call to fight back against Brannan and officially launched a counterattack.

Its restaurants, grocery stores, tool repairs, laundry and other industries settled in San Francisco at almost the same time.

At the same time, Liang Yao also published news about the grand opening promotion in the California Daily. All products at Liang Yao's stalls in San Francisco will be sold at a 50% discount, and the event will last for a week.

This is undoubtedly great news for the vast number of gold prospectors in California.

Almost all gold mining companies and groups sent people to the new store in San Francisco early to purchase supplies. For a time, the four shops and more than a dozen stalls opened by Liang Yao in San Francisco were all surrounded by gold diggers.

Cai Mingsheng had to temporarily vacate the guest house to serve as a temporary counter for selling gold mining tools.

Previously, Liang Yao did not sell gold mining tools in San Francisco in order to avoid Brannan's attack. Therefore, there was no counter or shop to sell gold mining tools in San Francisco, so he could only temporarily requisition a guest house.

Gold mining tools are Brannan's core business, and Liang Yao's intention to get involved in the sales of gold mining tools is also obvious. He wants to squeeze out Brannan's big piece of cake. In order to seize this piece of cake, Liang Yao took out all the gold mining tools he had stocked in the past four months and even used them for his own use.

Under Liang Yao's attack, Brannan's properties in San Francisco, except for the brothels and casinos, could be said to be deserted and no one cared about them.

The reason why brothels and casinos have not been affected is because Liang Yao does not own these two industries.

The gold diggers are not stupid either. Liang Yao's price for the same product was originally slightly lower than Brannan's, but now the grand opening offer has cut the price in half, which is extremely tempting to them.

Gold diggers would rather queue up all day at Liang Yao's shops and stalls than shop at Brannan's empty shops.

It had only been three days since Liang Yao's bold march into San Francisco, but the store owners under Brannan were already unable to sit still. They complained to Brannan one after another and asked Brannan to intervene to save the crisis.

The once high-spirited Brannan began to look a little haggard, and in his thirties, several hairs turned gray overnight. This was the first time since he became the richest man in California that he felt at a loss what to do.

Liang Yao caught him off guard.

"Get out! Get out! You annoying bastards! Useless guys! I need to be alone for a while!"

Brannan asked hired gunmen to drive the noisy shopkeepers out of the manor. His mind was confused now and he needed to calm down.

Brannan covered his face with his hands and rubbed his sore eyes.

Is his market share in San Francisco being squeezed out by Liang Yao? The most difficult thing in his mind right now is not this.

But Liang Yao actually bought land from those early immigrants before him.

Brannan's success today is largely due to his unique vision and his ability to always spot business opportunities before others do. For the first time since the gold rush, someone was ahead of him and discovered the huge business opportunity first.

Brannan regretted not paying attention to this potential competitor earlier and nipping it in the cradle, but now that Liang Yao had grown up, it was too late to think about it again.

After calming down, Brannan analyzed his own and his opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

There is no doubt that Brannan's biggest advantage is that he has stronger financial resources than Liang Yao.

Liang Yao purchased a large amount of land. Although Brannan did not know how much Liang Yao paid for these lands, he was certain that Liang Yao's current cash flow must be very tight.

Keeping existing industries afloat, rebuilding Sacramento, and capturing the market in San Francisco all require huge cash flows.

Liang Yao, aren't you going to start a price war with me to seize my market?

Okay, then I will fight with you! Let's see who among us can have the last laugh.

Brannan was determined to break the boat. As long as he won this business battle, he could force Liang Yao to submit. By then, the coveted land in Liang Yao's hands would naturally be in his pocket.

While fighting a price war with me, you are building a commercial street in San Francisco. Liang Yao, Liang Yao, you are such an annoying guy. You are so conceited that you don’t know how much you have.

"Third brother, Brannan has also reduced the price!"

Deng Wenshun galloped back to Sacramento from San Francisco without stopping, informed Liang Yao of the news, and gave Liang Yao a latest product price list.

Liang Yao looked at Brannan's pricing. Every item was slightly lower than his selling price. Obviously, Brannan's price reduction was a reaction to his entry into the San Francisco market.

"Brannan finally caught on."

Liang Yao was not annoyed or angry when he heard the news, but was a little happy.

He was also afraid that Brannan would not accept the move!

Now that Brannan has fallen into the trap, the next thing will be much easier to handle. It will be nothing more than a price war with Brannan, draining Brannan's wealth bit by bit.

Of course, this is also an act of killing one thousand enemies and damaging eight hundred, and he will also need to suffer huge economic losses.

"The horseshoes are almost worn out. Go to my house to get a good horse, take this letter to San Francisco and give it to Uncle Cai, and ask him to do it according to the provisions here. If something similar happens in the future, there is no need to I will report back to Sacramento that if he lowers the price, we will also lower the price. Remember, our selling price will always be lower than Brannan’s.”

Liang Yao put away his pen, blew the wet ink on the letter, then put it into an envelope and handed it to Deng Wenshun.

Jones could now understand a little bit of Chinese. When he learned that Liang Yao was going to have a price war with Brannan, he stepped forward to persuade him.

"Boss, I have to remind you that our funds are very tight right now. Although you borrowed 5,300 ounces of gold from Sartre and the Boston Company, our current inventory of gold is only 7,200 ounces.

Our daily expenses are staggering. The construction of San Francisco Commercial Street requires 367 ounces of gold per day for labor and 215 ounces of gold for building materials. To maintain the operation of existing industries, we need to invest 530 ounces of gold per day.

There is also the salary of your guard, which costs 45 ounces of gold daily. Of course, the salary of the guard is paid monthly, so you don't have to worry about it this month.

However, the loan from Mr. Sutter and the Boston Company requires us to pay one cent of interest every month, which is also a large amount of money.

At present, the pricing of our products is just enough to recover the cost. If you insist on lowering the price, we will inevitably bear losses. In a week, we will face the risk of the capital chain being broken, and you will most likely go bankrupt.

Maybe the situation is not that bad, you still have land, which is a lot of wealth."

"Okay, okay, give me the report."

Liang Yao impatiently interrupted Sven who was dropping his book bag. He was holding a pipe in his mouth and looking at the data on the report.

In order to fight a business war with Brannan, all its properties, except the laundry room, will be at a loss and will not make any profit.

The laundry can contribute 45 ounces of gold income every day. Now the mine's daily gold production is about 200 ounces. This relatively stable income is only enough to cover the cost of building materials.

Jones is right. If this continues, his capital chain will be broken in a week.

As for the land Jones mentioned, he will definitely not sell it. He will keep these lands even if he goes bankrupt. Even if it is absolutely necessary, he will not touch these lands.

"Brannan's financial resources are far stronger than yours. It is not difficult for Brannan to survive a week. If you want to start a price war with Brannan, I hope you will think twice before doing so." Jones reminded.