Steve was not only thin and weak but also had mild asthma.
Then there were his occasional chest and body pains.
With such a physique, sending him to the war was no different than killing him.
Therefore, every time Rogers went to the recruitment station, he would be rejected.
Rogers looked up at his friend and hesitantly said, "You didn't need to be so... angry, Luke."
Luke frowned slightly, then giving a friendly smile, he said, "I have to do that. Everyone will begin to push you around. This is Brooklyn, after all."
"Luke is right; if it weren't for his uncle and his own good connections in the Irish gang, we don't know how much trouble we would have faced every day." Bucky nodded in agreement.
The punks always bullied him and Rogers in the past.
This went on for days, being blocked in a corner and non-stop fighting on the streets.
Until one day, they met Luke and soon became good friends.
Keeping each other's backs, their friendship grew deeper.
And in Bucky's eyes, Luke was very quick-witted.
He came up with an idea to make money, taking advantage of the strict discipline of military bases and the fact that soldiers weren't allowed to go out of the base.
These three then sneaked into the barracks to sell small things like alcohol and tobacco.
Because their parents were old comrades, many people turned a blind eye to their sneaky actions and chose to leave them be.
They made quite a significant amount of money by relying on this business.
Later, this attracted the attention of the bootlegging gangs in Brooklyn.
(Editor note: Bootleggers mostly include smugglers.)
Due to this, Luke had to make good relationships with the Irish gangs and even took the initiative to part away with a big chunk of his sneaky business to escape from the trouble caused by the bootleggers.
As they talked about how Luke lost his fight earlier with Bucky, he joked, "That's good, you stay here and continue running this business. When I come back, maybe both of you will already be rich! Just like Howard Stark!"
No one knows how long the war will last.
For civilians, they hoped that the guns would stop firing as soon as possible and life would return to normal.
But for others, this was an excellent opportunity to make a fortune.
Industrialists will never let go of any opportunity to accumulate wealth.
Many people knew that before the United States participated in this world war, it sold a large number of weapons and equipment to the Axis and Allies at the same time, thereby making a fortune.
Among them was Stark Industries, which had gained a lot of fame and money in recent years.
It continues its rapid growth, jumping up and standing side by side with those old military-industrial groups, mainly because Howard Stark seized the opportunity.
He used his own witty mind and was also the central figure in many new inventions, which was appreciated a lot by the Ministry of National Defense.
Then he used the colossal wealth to make connections with the upper class, thus laying a broad and sound foundation for the future.
In just a few decades, he had become a huge military tycoon.
Apart from the rapidly growing Stark Industries, oil companies also seized this opportunity.
They broke through the British blockade through neutral countries like Switzerland and shipped barrels of oil to Germany, and made huge profits from this deal.
As a multinational-corporation and industrial giant, Ford was even more exaggerated.
He even helped the Germans produce trucks and made some hidden political investments.
Therefore, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Company, was awarded the Grand Cross, the highest medal awarded to foreigners by the Germans.
Anyone can see from this that the industrialists were not taking sides in this war.
They only had one purpose, and that was to make more money.
Even now that the United States had entered the war and joined the Allied powers, with the political scene getting more and more serious, it still didn't stop people from going after wealth.
"Howard Stark? I don't have that kind of mind!" Luke smiled slightly, and he turned his head and said to Rogers: "Steve if you really want to join the army, there are many other drafting stations. I can accompany you to some; let's try our luck there."
"Really?" There was a surprised smile on Rogers's face.
Bucky had always opposed him from joining the army, and there have been several arguments between the two.
However, Luke rarely expressed his stance, but today he suddenly agreed to accompany him to the drafting stations. This made Rogers very happy.
Standing next to them, Bucky was about to say something, but when he saw Luke throw a look that said, 'I know what I am doing', he chose to remain silent.
He knew that Luke, a friend who was the quietest among their group of three, would never do anything without reason.
"Alright then, tonight is my last night in New York! Are you guys planning to waste time in this alley?" Bucky changed the topic.
He was going to be on the battlefield tomorrow, rushing to a foreign country.
However, tonight, he would enjoy his time with hot ladies and get drunk with his best friends.
...
T/note:
2-3 Chapters will be released every day so we can remove the 15k words filler chapter asap. After that, we will go with 1 Chapter every day.
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