The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 342: Count Yegorov

The next morning, 10-year-old Billy walked into the classroom holding the picture album against his chest, as if he was holding the gold reserves in Fort Knox, with a very sacred gesture.

When he put the 3D glasses that came with the picture book on his classmate George's face, the whole fifth grade went crazy.

"Oh, God!"

George shouted as he watched the Sherman tank painted with the unique rainforest camouflage of the People's Army leap out of the tropical rainforest in the three-dimensional image.

"This is more exciting than watching Captain America beat up the shampoo guy!"

In White Eagle, the comics industry had already taken off with the momentum of the war.

Many comic characters that Zhang Chi was familiar with before traveling through time were born during this period.

Superman was born in 38, Aquaman was born in 39, Batman was born in 40, and Captain America and Wonder Woman were born in 41.

During World War II, White Eagle shipped 300 million comic books to overseas troops every month. The small 64-page picture albums were called "trench editions" at the time, so that they could be stuffed into military uniform pockets. Reading comics while squatting in cat ear holes became a popular entertainment activity among soldiers.

Soon, these comics became popular among the people of White Eagle, especially among office workers and students.

Now, Zhang Chi asked New Era Comics to produce 3D red and blue stereo glasses and corresponding picture albums, which shocked these White Eagle primary school students.

The whole class was in an uproar. All the students were passing this exquisite 3D picture album around to each other. While looking at the passionate scenes of the Anmin Army soldiers wearing jungle camouflage cloaks fighting the Japanese invaders, they were discussing why these magical red and blue glasses could make the pictures three-dimensional, as if jumping out of the paper.

By the end of the day, almost all the students had taken a look at the picture album once or twice.

"Look at this machine gun, it's really powerful when it fires."

"Colonel Chi is awesome! His ingenious tactics have left those Japanese soldiers completely bewildered."

"The greatest country is still the United States. They all use our tanks."

The students were enthusiastically discussing everything about the 3D picture album and the stories told in it.

As the story of the Anmin Army beating up the Japanese devils in Southeast Asia spread, there was naturally a subtle influence.

At least with the picture album that Billy brought, the students around knew that the Anmin Army and the Chinese in Southeast Asia were also part of the "justice" camp.

And tens of thousands of such picture albums and comic books were distributed for free through the New Era Department Store chain's welcome raffle.

As Yegorov's newly established New Era Comics Group brought Transformers and made its first fortune through this IP, comics with various positive Chinese characters also began to be published crazily.

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As for launching such a cultural offensive, will it cost too much money?

Regarding this issue, Zhang Chi felt that he was not going to follow the example of the four major families and put his money in the White Eagle Bank to earn interest.

With his experience of the future, he could make much more money than that little interest by just investing.

In addition to the part controlled by Yegorov, he also has an open investment in the New Era Department Store. As long as the mall makes money, he will also make a profit.

In addition, his Nanhua Group is also the exclusive supplier of New Era Department Store. Every time New Era Department Store sells a pen, a shirt, or a can of food, he can get several times the profit.

Compared to these, the money spent on the cultural offensive is a drop in the bucket.

Once products with Chinese cultural style can be sold in White Eagle, the world's largest consumer market in the future, the profits will be beyond imagination.

If he wanted the people in the currently controlled area, especially the Chinese and the local prominent families who went to Southeast Asia in the early years, to gather around Zhang Chi, it could only be in their common interests.

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The benefits brought by New Era Department Store are obviously not small.

Thanks to the success of New Era Department Store, Yegorov once again appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

This taciturn and stylish Maoist tycoon, who is said to have close ties with the fallen Romanov dynasty, has once again become the focus of local public opinion.

After all, there were raffles for cars and 3D stereoscopic picture albums; the people of White Eagle in the 40s had never seen such tricks.

Everyone can see that with this favorable trend, New Era Department Store under Yegorov's name has become popular in Arkansas and Kentucky, becoming a cash cow that brings in continuous profits.

The jobs and tax revenue it brought also allowed Yegorov to extend his influence into local politics in Arkansas and Kentucky after joining the Pentagon and the Texas oil consortium, and become friends with many local lawmakers.

In addition, next to the parking lot of every New Era Department Store, there is a secret Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant set up in advance by the shameless Zhang Chi, which uses the "mysterious recipe from the East". The money that Zhang Chi invested through Yegorov, the white glove, has returned to his hands at a multiple of his original amount.

As for the old department stores such as Macy's and Gimbel's, they were quickly beaten to a pulp by the marketing combination of New Era Department Store and began to try to copy the marketing methods of New Era Department Store.

But as the first initiator, the up-and-coming New Era Department Store has quickly snatched food from the tiger's mouth and carved out a piece of the market.

Moreover, as traditional department stores, their biggest problem is their small scale; one building is all that these department stores occupy.

However, New Era Department Store is a chain department store that drew on the experience of Walmart in later generations. Its large scale and large number of stores mean that Yegorov has more bargaining power when facing the upstream production chain.

In addition, Zhang Chi is behind Yegorov, who can place large orders to import goods with low labor costs from Pegu, and directly kill off the traditional department stores in several local states in the competition.

Yegorov, the synthetic human who serves as Zhang Chi's public spokesperson in the United States, soon gained new accolades such as "business wizard" and "earl of retail" after receiving the title of "God's right hand."

Zhang Chi doesn't care at all about these reputations that should belong to him. After all, real profits and sweet money are the most important.

Thanks to New Times Department Store, a new company with a very long upstream chain, even the IRS would not be able to distinguish Yegorov's actual expenditure and income for a while.

So, using this cover, Zhang Chi quickly asked Yegorov to withdraw funds, quietly seized a full set of key equipment for a 4000-ton dry dock, and transported them all back to Pegu on a New Era Shipping cargo ship.

Originally, Zhang Chi wanted to take over the production line of the R-2800 Twin Wasp engine.

He had been coveting this pinnacle representative of air-cooled engines for a long time. Unfortunately, not only did the White Eagle officials keep a close eye on this important national weapon, but even Pratt & Whitney itself regarded it as a forbidden delicacy.