1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 131 Great Changes (650 orders will be added!)

"Are you a colonel in the United States now?"

Sven looked at the colonel's epaulette on Liang Yao's shoulder with some disbelief.

If Liang Yao were to become a major, he would not find it strange at all to have an officer at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In the United States, as long as you have money, it is easy to buy a major or lieutenant colonel under a colonel and enjoy being an officer.

But being a colonel is not something you can get if you have money. You must at least be connected with officials at the ministerial level in the United States.

"He is a genuine American Army Colonel." Liang Yao said without any hesitation in his heart.

Not to mention officials at the ministerial level, he and President Fillmore have been exchanging letters frequently these days, but they are discussing things that make both parties unhappy.

"Tsk tsk, maybe when I come back from another sea voyage, you will be a brigadier general of the American Army."

Sven, who had lost a lot of weight, clicked his tongue and said in surprise.

"That's not true. There are only four or five brigadiers in the United States Army. It's not my turn. I see that you have lost a lot of weight. This ocean voyage must not be a pleasant one."

Liang Yao looked at Si Wen and Wu Yuanhua. Compared with the last time they met, both of them were much thinner.

It is not easy to be a general in the United States. It not only requires the approval of the American ruling class, but also requires sufficient contributions and qualifications in the military field. Not just anyone can be a general.

Furthermore, a mere American general is not his goal.

"Too much coal is needed to get from Guangzhou to California, and the three ships are all overloaded. The supplies that can be brought are very limited. Fortunately, you Chinese can endure hardships. You all endured it and persisted until San Francisco."

Sven said, fortunately, most of the passengers on this trip were Chinese, able to endure hardships, and had no complaints about the reduced food rations. There were no problems along the way and they arrived in California smoothly.

If I had been a white passenger, the trip probably wouldn't have been so smooth.

"Fortunately."

Liang Yao patted Siwen on the shoulder and said.

He understood why Si Wen and Wu Yuanhua had become so thin. No matter how short the food supplies on the ship were, they would not be short of food supplies. They set an example and stabilized the hearts of the people on the ship.

Sven is still reliable.

"According to your request, I recruited more than 400 Chinese sailors in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. After the immigrants have made a clear handover with you, I need to take them to the office of Global Shipping Company to sign a formal employment contract.

It's just that most of these crew members are sailors on sailboats, and they need to be trained to familiarize themselves with the operation on steam ships." Sven thought for a while and said.

"Many of these Chinese sailors were originally employed by the British East India Company. I paid a high termination fee to lure them here. I think you are worthy of the money. You will have to reimburse me later."

"No problem, as long as you can provide them with a termination agreement."

At present, he does not expect TCL to make money. If he wants TCL to make a profit quickly, he will not let Sven go to all the trouble to transport immigrants across the treacherous route across the Pacific.

"Straus also recruited more than two hundred crew members from the eastern states last year, and Mr. Vanderbilt also handed over the James Day to us.

This year, in addition to the five steamships we ordered in the east that can be launched, I also bought three steamships that have been launched directly from French shipyards. The tonnage exceeds 2,000 tons. It just takes a while to arrive.

goods."

Liang Yao tells Siwen good news.

"Does this mean that Universal Shipping Company will have 12 steamships of over 1,000 tons?"

Sven was extremely happy, as happy as a child in public, and didn't care about his own image at all.

A shipping company with twelve steamships of more than 1,000 tons can be ranked high even in the UK where there are many large shipping companies. What's more, Global Shipping Company is still a young shipping company that has just been established for less than a year.

It feels so good to be backed by a big financier who owns a gold mine.

Sven is now a little worried that Vanderbilt's status as the shipping king will soon be lost, as Liang Yao's expansion is too fast.

"It turns out you know something about boats. The French have made rapid progress in shipbuilding technology in recent years. The quality of their latest boats launched from the factory is better than that of the British. I heard that the price is also more affordable than the British boats."

After the excitement of happiness passed, Sven continued to speak to Liang Yao.

"When I was in Guangzhou, I was invited by a French captain to visit his new ship. The French do have their own uniqueness in ship design."

The tonnage of the British Royal Navy's ships is greater than the combined tonnage of the following naval powers. As long as the British Royal Navy maintains the size of its current fleet, it is enough to crush the navies of any other country.

The British are far inferior to the French who want to overtake in corners in terms of ship updates.

This is true for the navy, and so is the shipping industry.

If France wants to catch up with Britain at sea, it is impossible to catch up with France in terms of quantity given its national strength.

If France wants to overtake in a corner, it can only start with the quality of its ships and ship-borne weapons.

As early as 1823, the French used their relatively mature metallurgical technology to stuff iron projectiles with explosives equipped with time-delay fuzes to replace solid artillery shells with insufficient lethality.

The emergence of this kind of artillery shell was simply a dimensionality-reducing blow to the wooden sail warships at that time, and the offensive and defensive situation of the naval battle was instantly reversed.

Feeling threatened, the British launched their first iron-clad wooden steam battleship, the Nemesis, just seven years later.

Since then, various countries have followed suit, either building new wooden warships covered with iron sheets, or adding iron sheets to existing ships. This has given rise to a new round of naval arms race.

Subsequently, France was once again at the forefront of the times. Not only did it replace the thin iron shell casings with cast iron, further enhancing the lethality of the shells, it also launched the epoch-making armored ship Glorious in 1859.

A 107-120 mm thick wrought iron armor plate was installed on the outer side of the ship's hull, which attracted the attention of all its peers at the time.

The birth of the Glorious directly ushered in the era of ironclads.

"It's more comfortable to deal with the French than the British."

Liang Yao thought of Gibson and Legoff who were still in California, and because of Gibson's arrogant and arrogant attitude, he would not place an order with a British shipyard.

If the British are willing to sell your goods, they will never be good goods.

"I haven't been here for a few months. The changes here are really big."

Wu Yuanhua looked at the prosperous city of San Francisco and lamented that the development here was so fast that he could hardly recognize it.

"These friends, please ask Brother Wu to help introduce you."

Liang Yao looked at the dozen Chinese businessmen behind Wu Yuanhua and said.

Wu Yuanhua hurriedly introduced those Chinese businessmen to Liang Yao, and Liang Yao met them one by one.

In addition to the Wu family's Yihe Hang, the Pan family's Tongfu Hang, the Lu family's Guangli Hang, the Ye family's Yee Shing Hang, and other Dongxing Hang, Tianbao Hang, Xingtai Hang, Zhonghe Hang, Shuntai Hang, Yanhe Hang, and Tongxing

Shunxing, Xuetaixing, Dongchangxing, and Anchangxing all sent people over.

It was only after understanding that only the Wu family and the Pan family sent direct descendants of the family, and the people sent by other walks of life were all insignificant figures in the family.

Not only merchants from Guangdong came, but also several merchants from Fujian came with the ship.

Both the Wu family and the Pan family have their ancestral home in Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, and have a lot of interactions with Fujian merchants. It is not surprising that Fujian merchants came with them.

While they were talking, the immigrants on the steamer slowly got off the steamer and were checking in at the port to wait for arrangements.

There were soldiers from the California Infantry Regiment here to maintain order, and everything went smoothly.

Most of the immigrants communicated in dialects, among which Cantonese was the most spoken. In addition to Cantonese, there were also many immigrants who spoke Hokkien. What surprised Liang Yao was that among the immigrants this time, there were actually immigrants with Guangxi accents.

"Are there Guangxi people among the immigrants who came with the ship?"

Liang Yao asked curiously, Guangxi did not have a high sense of existence before modern times, but in the mid-19th century, the mention of this province could make the Manchu dignitaries in the Forbidden City in Beijing gnash their teeth and hate it to the bone.

"After years of natural disasters, the Tiandihui took the opportunity to frequently cause troubles in Guangxi. In recent years, many Guangxi people have come to Guangdong to beg for food to make a living. But this year is not easy for us in Guangdong." Wu Yuanhua said with a long sigh.

"In addition to the Tiandihui, there is another cult that is more violent than the Tiandihui. I heard that tens of thousands of people have gathered in Guangxi to rebel, but now it is estimated that this group has been quelled by the imperial court's troops."

The cult that Wu Yuanhua mentioned was more violent than the Tiandihui was the Taiping Rebellion.

It's just that this group of soldiers from the Qing court was probably defeated by the Taiping rebel army, rather than the Taiping rebel army being suppressed by the Qing court. Wu Yuanhua was still too optimistic.

I am afraid that Wu Yuanhua's current thinking also represents the thinking of most of the Manchu ruling class. They believe that the Qing Dynasty is stable and there is nothing to fear from a group of petty thieves.

"I have prepared the carriage for you. Please come to the humble residence and have a chat."

Liang Yao clapped his hands, and the coachman drove several carriages over.

These businessmen have lived in the five trading areas and dealt with foreigners all year round, so they are no strangers to Western-style carriages.

"I know brother Xian likes to ride horses. I don't want to ride in a carriage. Brother Xian will just prepare a horse for me." Wu Yuanhua said.

Liang Yao nodded, and the two of them mounted their horses and headed towards Tingtao Garden.

The two of them chatted while riding.

"Thanks to Brother Xian this time, our Wu family owes Brother Xian a big favor." Wu Yuanhua said.

"The Wu family's fleet also brought more than 1,500 immigrants. These immigrants will also be resettled by Xiandi. However, our ship needs to rely on sails to sail against the wind, which is not as fast as a foreign ship. By the way, your father and mother.

And Liang asked me to bring a letter to you."

With that said, Wu Yuanhua took out three letters from his sleeve and handed them to Liang Yao.

Liang Yao took the letter and put it into his pocket and asked: "No one from the Liang family is willing to come to California?"

"There are a few Liang family members who are willing to come to California to join you. However, after Liang Geizhong saw Captain Sven's ship, he felt that it was unlucky to sail on a foreigner's smoking ship, as he believed that foreign ships are prone to fire.

Therefore, they took the Wu family's boat to come to California, and estimated that they would be able to reach California in another ten days and a half."

Wu Yuanhua congratulated Liang Yao.

"The Liang family has used the gold sent back by my dear brother to buy a new house and land. Congratulations to my dear brother, my dear brother has single-handedly made the Liang family prosperous."

Today I am short of an update of several hundred words and 10,000 words. I will work hard next time and strive for an update of 10,000 words! I hope everyone will support the genuine version! Subscribe and support! Thank you!

(End of chapter)