"Talk. What exactly is going on?" Two nights later, at the same restaurant, Josh looked at Lyndon Schneider in front of him and asked.
Just half an hour ago, he had received a call from Schneider — there was news about the stolen goods.
"It was done by the Jews," Lyndon Schneider replied.
"Is the information reliable?" Josh asked.
"It's confirmed. The intel came from our partners in New York — the Corleone family," Lyndon Schneider nodded. "Originally, that shipment was meant to be sold to them, but now, according to the information from over there, the goods have shown up in the hands of their rivals — the Masseria family. And their partners in Chicago are the Jewish gang."
"Since we've identified who's behind it, you don't need me to tell you what to do next, do you?" Josh said.
Hearing the name of the Corleone family didn't surprise Josh — he had known about it for a while.
As the boss behind the scenes, Josh didn't interfere with the day-to-day business, but he did need to know the basic information — such as the major underground forces in Chicago, the Five Families of the New York Mafia, and some large gangs across the U.S.
So when Lyndon Schneider first got in touch with people in New York, Josh already knew about the Corleone family.
Josh didn't care too much at the time — after all, there was already Margot, the female lead of the "telephone murder case," and Sabrina, who seemed to be Audrey Hepburn's role from the original world — so if the Godfather showed up too, so be it.
Besides, compared to the recently revealed Captain America and Howard Stark, the Godfather was really no big deal.
"Boss, I'm afraid this matter won't be so easy to handle..." However, seeing Josh's expression, Lyndon Schneider hesitated.
"Oh? Why?" Josh frowned.
"Because according to what the Corleone family revealed, this operation wasn't led by Chicago's Jewish gang, but was actually ordered by the Masseria family!" Lyndon Schneider explained.
"Masseria family? Luciano? Did our business offend him?" Josh began to take it seriously.
If it was just Chicago's Jewish gang, Josh wouldn't care but if it involved the Masseria family, that was another matter.
The head of the Masseria family was the same person who would later become the head of the Genovese family — one of the Five Families of New York — in Josh's original world.
Of course, the Genovese name came later, after WWII when Vito Genovese took over.
Right now, Genovese was just the current head of the Masseria family — and merely the third-in-command under Luciano, the man Josh referred to.
And Luciano — he was a significant figure in the Mafia, even said to be the boss of all bosses among the families.
Even the Corleone family had to give way during his time in charge.
Because the Mafia's national syndicate, La Cosa Nostra — also known as the Mafia Commission — was founded under Luciano's leadership.
Under his guidance, the Mafia even enacted two strict bans: no selling of drugs and no murdering law enforcement officers.
However, Luciano had been imprisoned for years now by the current governor of New York, Dewey. In prison, he served as a librarian, only able to remotely control the Masseria family.
Josh's operation had only been around for a few months — they shouldn't have had any serious conflict with the Masseria family.
Could it be because of doing business with the Corleones? But that didn't make sense — even though the Masseria and Corleone families weren't exactly friendly, they still maintained a surface-level balance.
"No, the order didn't come from Luciano, but from his most important assistant — Meyer Lansky," Lyndon Schneider shook his head.
"Meyer Lansky? We don't have any dealings with him either." Josh was confused.
Of course, Josh knew who Meyer Lansky was — Luciano's most trusted partner, strategist, and the godfather of the Jewish faction in the Mafia. He was held in high regard throughout Jewish organized crime in America.
"No, boss. Before us, the Jewish gang controlled by Meyer Lansky was the country's largest underground cigarette production and sales group. Tobacco was also one of their main sources of income," Lyndon Schneider explained. "Our cigarettes are of better quality and cheaper. I think that's why they moved against us."
Hearing this, Josh finally understood.
So he had accidentally stepped on the toes of the biggest Jewish gang in America...
This was indeed a tricky situation.
Although Josh's development was rapid, he had only been around for a short time, and his organization couldn't compare in size to these long-established Mafia families.
"What's the Corleone family's stance on this?" Josh asked coldly.
"Their stance is non-interference. If we can get the goods to them, they'll take them — but beyond that, they won't get involved," Lyndon Schneider said helplessly. "If my guess is correct, this time was just a warning. If we continue to ship in large quantities, similar incidents will probably keep happening."
Obviously, the Corleone family didn't want to get involved in this mess.
Though tobacco was highly profitable, it wasn't enough to make them confront Meyer Lansky over it.
"Hmph, they want to make money but not take on any risk — what a clever scheme!" Josh was clearly dissatisfied with the Corleones' attitude, but there wasn't much he could do.
Jews — what a troublesome group, Josh thought, and a trace of disgust flashed across his face.
That disgust wasn't just because they stole his goods.
It also came from what Josh had known in his past life, when he was still a citizen of Xia.
Many people only knew that during WWII, Jews were ruthlessly persecuted by the Germans. Few knew that Jews also had deep grudges with Xia people.
One example was the infamous "Fugu Plan." During WWII, Xia had sheltered many Jewish refugees, but many of those Jews ended up colluding with the Japs, attempting to establish a Jewish state in Northeast Xia — a plan that ultimately failed.
Another reason was the notorious "Exclusion Acts."
Some might wonder — weren't the Exclusion Acts pushed by the U.S. government? What did they have to do with the Jews?
Actually, quite a lot — and it even had to do with tobacco.
Because the root cause of it all traced back to a Jewish man named Samuel Gompers.
Gompers immigrated from England to New York in 1863. As a young man, he worked as a cigar maker — and back then, a large portion of the U.S. cigar workforce was Jewish.
But the best cigars weren't made by Jewish workers — they were made by Asian workers in California, including Xia people.
Xia workers were diligent and produced high-quality cigars at low wages, making it hard for Jewish workers led by Gompers to earn much money. That's when Gompers began to hate Xia people.
Shrewd and active in labor organizing, Gompers quickly gained influence among industrial workers and, in 1875, became head of the U.S. Cigar Makers' Union.
It was from this position that Gompers launched the first wave of anti-Xia laws, inciting white laborers to hate Asian workers.
Because of him, exclusionist sentiment spread from the Jewish community to every stratum of American society.