1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 112 Full preparation

It was mid-November 1850 when Fremont arrived in California.

The winter in California is cold and wet, and it has been raining continuously for five days.

The ship slowly sailed into the busy port of San Francisco, and Fremont stepped off the ship holding an umbrella.

He was followed by more than twenty servants he had brought from Georgia and more than forty fanatical followers from New York.

Liang Yao greeted Fremont at the heavily fortified port of San Francisco.

When the local people heard the news about Fremont's return, they spontaneously went to the port to welcome Fremont back and gave Fremont a hero's courtesy.

This made Fremont feel that all his efforts in Washington, D.C., were worthwhile, although the results were somewhat unsatisfactory.

"Welcome home, my good comrade."

Liang Yao held Fremont's calloused hand and said.

"Home, yes, California is our home, and we don't allow anyone to trample and destroy our home." Fremont showed a pleased smile.

Fremont was very pleasantly surprised to find that San Francisco had undergone earth-shaking changes during his absence.

The new city of San Francisco, centered on the commercial street, is planned neatly and orderly, and brand-new buildings are rising on these planned lands.

There are even several factories on the edge of the city, one of which has thick smoke billowing out of its chimney.

"There is a factory in California now?" Fremont asked in surprise.

Fremont was a native of Georgia in the south, but he was not a plantation owner who stubbornly pursued a pastoral life like poetry and painting.

He believed that the development of industry was the way forward for the future of the United States. Therefore, after the outbreak of the Civil War, Fremont did not choose to be loyal to the Confederacy. Instead, he insisted on his own beliefs and betrayed his family and chose to serve the North.

"Yes, yes, but currently only steam engine factories and shipyards are operating normally. Other factories lack workers and raw materials. They have just settled in the industrial zone and have not started construction yet." Liang Yao said, "Now we have more important things.

If we have to do it, we can only slow down the factory work for a while."

Strauss directly purchased some small and medium-sized industrial and mining companies in the eastern region, dismantled the machines of these companies, and transported these machines to California as quickly as possible via the Nicaragua route.

Along with these machines, 1,200 skilled technicians and engineers arrived in California. Liang Yao almost directly transplanted these mature industrial and mining enterprises in the east to California.

It’s just that Congress insisted on taking back the land in California. In order to protect his legal land, Liang Yao could only temporarily slow down the pace of industrial development.

"If those consortiums weren't too greedy, given your ability, these factories in California would have started operations long ago."

Fremont sighed. He looked around and saw that the port was full of heavily armed personnel. Fixed coastal defense artillery batteries were even built in Jinshan Bay, blocking the entire Jinshan Bay.

Armed officers on alert are inspecting ships preparing to enter the port and strictly questioning the captains on board. Even British and French merchant ships are no exception.

Fremont understood that Liang Yao spent his main resources on defending the port of San Francisco.

"It's meaningless to say this. I want the guys in Congress to know that Californians are not easy to mess with." Liang Yao ordered someone to pull a carriage and said to Fremont, "Fremont, get in the car.

."

Fremont didn't want to take a carriage, but asked Liang Yaodao: "Is there a horse? I'm more used to riding a horse."

"Of course."

Liang Yao clapped his hands, and Kony quickly brought two majestic horses over.

The two of them rode horses and galloped all the way back to Tingtao Garden.

When the guard on duty at the gate of Tingtao Garden saw that Liang Yao had returned, he saluted Liang Yao and Fremont with a very strange, but pleasing military salute.

This kind of military salute looks like a Prussian military salute. Did Liang Yao recruit Prussian officers to train his army?

Freemont was filled with questions. Along the way, he paid attention to Liang Yao's soldiers. These soldiers were well-trained and did not look like they were stragglers. They even walked side by side.

Before arriving in California, Fremont did not have high hopes for the California Infantry Regiment formed by Liang Yao.

Liang Yao was good at business and proficient in civil affairs, but he was not a professional military personnel after all.

Fremont had low expectations for the California Infantry, and was satisfied as long as it met the standards of a militia.

Now it seems that Liang Yao is no amateur in the military.

Although Fremont did not know the actual combat effectiveness of the California Infantry Regiment, on the surface, the spirit and organization of the California Infantry Regiment surpassed many active American infantry regiments.

Fremont now felt more confident in defending California.

"These soldiers have been trained very well by you, Liang Yao. You always surprise me. How many such soldiers do you have?" Freemont asked.

"The California Infantry Regiment now has 350 veterans. In addition to these veterans, 700 new recruits have been recruited in the past two months, and they are training in the fort."

Liang Yao replied that the armed forces he can mobilize now are not only the California Infantry Regiment, members of the Loyalty Society, mine protection teams of major gold mining companies, local farmers, etc., these are all armed forces that can be organized and mobilized.

.

When necessary, Liang Yao can definitely pull up an armed force of two to three thousand people, or even more.

His current family fortune is much stronger than when Washington founded the country.

"That's enough." Fremont rubbed his hands excitedly, "I heard that half of Colonel Mason's regiment is marching towards San Francisco. I don't think half of the regiment can get much benefit in San Francisco.

Texas has also recently sent more troops to New Mexico, and the federal government will not be able to dispatch too many troops to California in the short term."

"I'm not afraid even if a lot of troops are sent to California." Liang Yao said very confidently.

He is not blindly confident. California's infrastructure is very poor. Not only does it have no railways, but there are also very few roads. It is also far away from the eastern base camp. Even if the federal government has the ability to mobilize five or even ten infantry regiments, it will not be able to provide these services.

Expeditionary infantry regiments provide logistical support.

The federal government wants to transport large quantities of military logistics supplies to California only through the Nicaragua route or the Panama route.

The eastern section of the Nicaragua route was controlled by Vanderbilt, and the western section was controlled by his Universal Shipping Company.

The only transportation line that the federal government has complete control over is Panama. Not only does Panama not have a canal, it has not even started building a railway.

If the federal government wants to provide supplies to the army through this route, it will not only take longer, but the transportation efficiency will also be very low.

Mason's troops haven't even reached Los Angeles yet, which speaks volumes.

"It seems you are fully prepared."

After walking into Tingtao Garden, Fremont put away his umbrella and shook the rain off his woolen coat.

Coney very discerningly handed Fremont a clean coat. Fremont said thank you to Coney and then put on the coat Coney handed over.

"It's not perfect, but I'm fully prepared. For this year's autumn harvest, California has harvested a lot of food. Plus the food I bought from Mexico, the food I've hoarded is enough to support us until next year's autumn harvest." Liang

Yao said as he walked.

“When necessary, California’s supplies can be rationed to distribute these supplies more effectively. In this way, even if new immigrants continue to flow into California, at the current rate of immigration growth, we can barely survive until next fall.

"

"Not to mention next fall, with the current situation of the federal government, I don't think they can hold on for half a year." Fremont said closely following Liang Yao's footsteps.

"Mr. President supports us. What the United States needs now is to recuperate and heal the wounds caused by the war, rather than starting a new war.

I think Mr. President and those wise congressmen should know this. As long as we can persist for a period of time, those die-hards in Congress will sooner or later lower their arrogant heads."

Liang Yao also agreed with Fremont's point of view. The United States is indeed not ready to fight a new war.

At the beginning of the year, there was so much quarrel between the North and the free states and the slave states in the South. Didn't the two sides still not fight in the end?

This is not because the North and the South love peace, but because both the North and the South are not ready for civil war.

In terms of contradictions, the contradiction between the north and the south of the United States at this time is far greater than the contradiction between the east and the west.

Liang Yao seems to be an enemy of the entire United States, but in fact his enemies are only the aristocrats of the old states and representatives of the plutocrats in Congress.

As long as Fillmore was not completely stupid, he would not continue to pay for the greed of these people.

(End of chapter)