While in America, the system says Roosevelt was an emperor.

Spending money is always easier than making money, and buying a house is simpler than paying taxes, with prices far below expectations.

The residential area Tom passed through on his way to and from get off work consisted of three-story mansions like Denise's:

The location is within one kilometer of Central Park, and the property prices are outrageously high.

Around $1000 per square meter, starting from a minimum of 500 square meters, with a single unit starting at $500,000.

Based on GDP per capita, it would take 750 years of working without eating or drinking to earn that amount.

It's quite cheap. Without considering inflation, you could buy a top-tier apartment in New York if you worked from the founding of the Ming Dynasty until now.

Denise's three-story apartment has a total area of ​​nearly 5,000 square meters, with a unit price of $1500 and a total value of $7.5 million.

In later generations, this would be equivalent to a super mansion with a price of $150 million per square meter and a total price of $7.5 million.

Even if you empty Tom's pockets, he still can't afford it.

No, if we "hollow out" Tom, we might actually get what we want in return.

Although Tom is quite slick, is Tom really that despicable?

We need to pay more!

Besides being expensive, large, and impractical, no one would sell the top-tier luxury apartments to Tom.

No matter how much money Tom has, he can't buy it even if he wants to right away.

Manhattan, and even all of New York and the United States, all upscale neighborhoods are voting communities;

Any new buyer must obtain the consent of all owners in a vote to purchase the property; a veto means the purchase cannot be made.

Tom ignored him; the seller was acting like a big shot.

Membership-based supermarkets, limited-time offers, and co-branded specials—Tom is never interested.

It's nothing more than a way to raise prices.

In later generations, how many Ferrari limited-edition supercars have been officially oversold?

Tom chose a newly built apartment building with fewer complicated rules and bought three floors at once.

Each floor has ten 100-square-meter two-bedroom apartments, priced at $500 per square meter, totaling $50,000 per apartment, for a total of 30 apartments.

The furniture is all ready-made; you can move in immediately with just your bags.

They found a house they liked, for a total of one and a half million US dollars.

Tom went to the Corleone family's hideout to collect the money.

Inside the stronghold, Godfather Vito took out the taxes paid by the various gangs:

$40 from the Corleone family;

The Devil's Stick: $40;

The Holy Mother Alliance: $40;

$80 from the Kovic family;

Blood Lion Gang: $80;

Adding the $80 that Fuxing Club didn't take, the total is $360 million.

Who says hard work can't lead to wealth? Look at Tom, who relied on the Japanese and became rich through hard work in just a few days.

One million was used to buy the position of team leader, and the remaining two million six hundred thousand was Tom's hard-earned money from "hard work".

Tom plans to deposit the money in the bank first, and the finance bureau will provide it later.

Sonny brought a few of Corleone's henchmen to escort the money.

Before leaving, Father Vito called Tom to a stop and gestured for everyone else to leave.

Only the two of them remained in the conference room. Vito, having lowered his guard, was unusually tense, hesitant to speak.

Tom was also curious, as it was the first time he had seen Vito the Godfather like this, and asked:

"Godfather Vito, what's wrong?"

"This is the first time I've seen you so nervous. You were so calm when we discussed clearing your name back then."

"Could it be something even bigger than clearing one's name?"

"Did my brother-in-law, Mike, secretly go to the front lines and want me to use my connections to bring him back?"

Despite the joke, Vito remained tense and stammered:

"Tom... this is... much bigger than clearing his name."

Tom put away his playful mood and looked at Vito's godfather with a serious expression.

Vito the Godfather took a deep breath and slowly said:

"You should know, or rather, no one in the whole world doesn't know."

"Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Europe was already in chaos."

Tom nodded, thinking to himself:

During World War II, everyone knew about the ill-fated couple, Little Mustache and Big Mustache.

The two men admired each other back in Vienna, and if it weren't for Ice Axe's involvement, there would have been no World War II.

Big Beard and Ice Axe are also a pair of star-crossed lovers, their love-hate relationship has escalated to the point of actual killing.

Tom was also reading unofficial historical accounts, so the specific details were bound to be somewhat different, but that's not important.

Unofficial history, if it weren't unofficial, it would just be history.

Vito continued:

"The day after we unified the central constituency, Italian officials contacted me privately."

"They asked if I could help them find a way to buy some war supplies that are embargoed by the United States, and offered to exchange them for their specialty olive oil."

Tom nodded in understanding:

Previously, the Corleone family had only engaged in minor activities, which the Italian government naturally did not take seriously.

Now, the unified central constituency covers an area with a population of hundreds of thousands.

Even if each household legally buys some medicine from a pharmacy, it would still amount to a considerable amount of war supplies.

Vito the Godfather then said:

"Even Italian olive oil is fine."

"When the devil's stick came to deliver the money, the leader Thomas Müller told me that they had been secretly smuggling steel, oil and rubber to Germany."

"Now that the port area is expanding, they want to increase smuggling volume."

"Normally, I wouldn't need to tell you about such a trivial matter; there are plenty of smugglers in New York."

"In the past, we would have just done it."

"But yesterday, December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States."

"On the same day, the United States also declared war on Germany and Italy."

"So both he and I wanted to ask—Tom, what's your opinion on smuggling from Germany and Italy?"

Tom lowered his head in thought.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Tom used the war as an excuse to become a millionaire in just a few days.

In the eyes of Vito and other leaders, war was undoubtedly the government's highest priority.

Even when relations between the US, Germany, and Italy were at their worst, they never directly declared war.

Now that war has been formally declared, it's normal to be cautious, as one is unsure of the other's stance.

Tom smiled and said:

"That's all?"

"You and Thomas can sell with confidence, sell as you please, I'll take care of you if anything goes wrong."

"If you two are worried about the security, find a shell company to operate under, let my parents hold the positions, and give them 50% of the profits."

Vito nodded, and half of his anxiety subsided.

Taking 50% for free, though a lot, is still considered generous.

It's not that I'm afraid Tom is greedy, it's that I'm afraid Tom isn't greedy;

As long as Tom joins, the smuggling business can proceed.

Tom wouldn't dare touch anything involving the Pacific theater.

The European battlefield was different.

German immigrants make up the largest portion of the American population, accounting for about 50%.

Among German immigrants, those from Germany and Britain were the most numerous;

German immigrants make up 20% and Onssa immigrants (from England) make up 15%.

There were at least tens of thousands of merchants smuggling goods to Germany, creating jobs for millions of people – truly the "lifeline of millions of canal workers".

What if the government wanted a large-scale reckoning after the war?

If you include German immigrants, you'd have to count one-fifth of the population, and they were all ordinary people.

Let alone Roosevelt, even Old Man Huang would have to think twice before going.

Vito nodded and continued:

"And there's something even more important—Thomas Müller's contact, a German businessman, specifically asked to see you, saying he wants to discuss a big deal."

"There's something I need to make clear beforehand: he's a complete Nazi."

"Tom, are you going to see him?"