1850 American Gold Baron

Xiangshan is the hometown of Liang Yao, and it has also been the main area for immigration since the Opium War. Many of the early immigrants in California also came from Xiangshan.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the immigration work, Liang Yao often gave gifts to Xiangshan officials after he became successful, and established a good relationship with Xiangshan County officials.

It's just that Fang Jianyuan has just arrived and hasn't done his homework well, so he doesn't know the joints involved.

But it doesn't matter. The county magistrate is Liu Shui and the squire is tough. As long as Liang Yao can win over the squires in Xiangshan, the attitude of the Xiangshan County Magistrate towards him is not that important.

Furthermore, in the Qing Dynasty, officials like Lin Zexu were in the minority after all, and most officials were still easily corrupted.

"I have informed Governor Ye about the army's rest and recuperation. I bought the land under my feet. I also paid for the Xiangshan Port where the ships are berthed. It is also appropriate for my troops to rest and recuperate on my land.

It’s a reasonable thing, Magistrate Fang, don’t you think so?”

After Fang Jianyuan sat down, Liang Yao asked the accompanying retinue to show Fang Jianyuan tea.

"The Liang family is originally a prominent family in Xiangshan. After Liang Yao became successful, his foundation in Xiangshan also faded away. County Lord, you have already done what you should do, and the merchants have also seen it. You have no regard for the governor."

I have also given an explanation and must not offend Liang Yao again."

When Fang Jianyuan took the tea cup, Fang Jianyuan's master whispered in Fang Jianyuan's ear, hoping that Fang Jianyuan would be more polite in his words next time so that both parties could get off the ground.

"Your Majesty will hand over Xiangshan to me. The burden on my shoulders is very heavy. It has been a troubled time recently. You have warships docking at the port and soldiers passing through. This makes me very embarrassed."

Fang Jianyuan pretended to be calm and took a sip of tea.

In addition to expressing embarrassment, Liang Yao was also unable to prevent the soldiers of Liang Yao's warship from staying in Xiangshan.

In addition to the California Infantry Regiment and the Arizona Infantry Regiment, the team for this expedition also included Perry's more than 1,100 naval officers and soldiers from the Navy. In addition to the sailors and related logistics personnel hired by Liang Yao, the number was four

More than a thousand people.

A military force of this scale, not to mention a county in Xiangshan or a province in Guangdong, would be enough for the Qing government to drink a pot of modern military force of 4,000 people.

"Fang County is respected as the parent of Xiangshan County. As a former Xiangshan citizen, I also understand the difficulties faced by Magistrate Fang, so I specially prepared some California specialties to relieve Magistrate Fang's worries."

As he spoke, Liang Yao clapped his hands, and the guard behind him quickly brought a heavy plate of gold to Fang Jianyuan.

Fang Jianyuan's eyes shone, staring straight at the gold presented to him, and he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

"Can these special products relieve the county's worries?"

Liang Yao asked Fang Jianyuan with a smile.

"This thing is better than Dukang wine in relieving worries."

The people accompanying Fang Jianyuan were all his confidants. In front of these confidants, he naturally did not have to show off his integrity, show his integrity, and accepted the specialties presented to him unceremoniously.

In addition to the gold, Liang Yao also gave the room a set of books called "Tongjian of All Nations".

"Wanguo Tongjian" is a book he compiled conveniently when he was compiling history textbooks. Its main content is to introduce the history of various countries in the world, especially the European countries. Unlike the textbook, the content of "Wan Guo Tongjian" is more in-depth.

Some, by the way, introduced the current international situation.

During this period, the entire Qing Dynasty could not be said to know anything about the outside world, it could only be said to be completely ignorant.

Six years later, Tsarist Russia, which had just been defeated in the Crimean War, had the mentality of losing the West and making up for the East. It threatened General Yishan of Heilongjiang and fired a few cannons in the outer northeast. This frightened Yishan, who was born in Xianglan Banner, and made him arbitrarily

Signed the illegal "Aihun Treaty" with Muravyov.

Let Tsarist Russia invade and occupy more than 600,000 square kilometers of China's territory north of Heilongjiang and south of the Xing'an Mountains, and designate about 400,000 square kilometers of Chinese territory east of the Ussuri River as a "shared territory" between China and Russia. The Second Opium War

Later, Tsarist Russia took advantage of the situation and directly seized these so-called condominium lands.

After that, they carried out genocide against the residents of Far China in the Outer Northeast, Russianized the Outer Northeast in the most brutal and bloody way, and completely invaded these territories.

The Treaty of Aihun caused China's Northeastern region to completely lose its outlet to the Sea of ​​Japan, and the negative impact on the Northeastern region was immeasurable.

The most direct reason why this treaty could be signed was that the local officials of the Qing court were ignorant and timid about the outside world.

To Liang Yao's dismay, Fang Jianyuan was more interested in gold than "The Mirror of All Nations".

Wu Shangrong was very interested in the book written by Liang Yao. He picked it up and read it briefly and then said to Liang Yao: "Master Liang, can you also give me a set of "Wanguo Tongjian"?"

Liang Yao nodded, and then asked someone to give Wu Shangrong a set of "Tongjian of All Nations". He looked at the merchants in Guangzhou, and they all had relatively unfamiliar faces. He didn't see Wu Yuanhua, Pan Zhengwei and others, so he asked

Wu Shangrong: "Ting Yu and Liang Yi are not in Guangzhou?"

"A few days ago, Deshe (Pan Shicheng), Tingyu and Liangyi, and the American tribute mission went to Beijing to pay tribute to the Holy Spirit. Now I guess they should go to the capital." Wu Shangrong held a plate in his hand that Pan Shicheng gave to him not long ago.

answered the rosary.

He immediately introduced several core children of the Wu family to Liang Yao, as well as Pan Shicheng's sons Pan Gui and Pan Guorong.

Liang Yao's arrival also shocked the Guangdong authorities. Ye Mingchen and Xu Guangjin also knew in their hearts that the hastily mobilized battalions of green battalions were not the Citizen soldiers who had been stationed during the Xiangshan landing.

The governor of Guangdong, Ye Mingchen, remained as negative as ever and ignored the fact that the Citizen soldiers were stationed in Xiangshan for rest.

Xu Guangjin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had a completely different attitude from Ye Mingchen. He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. He mobilized his five supervising battalions and prepared to go to Xiangshan to suppress the troops of the Citizen State.

"Ye Shaobao! The soldiers of the Citizen Kingdom have arrived at Xiangshan! If Liang Yao has evil intentions, his troops will be at the gates of Guangzhou within ten days! I also ask Ye Shaobao to mobilize soldiers from Fubiao Battalion to follow me to Xiangshan!"

Xu Guangjin anxiously told Ye Mingchen that he hoped to use Ye Mingchen's subordinates to help him.

Although the governor of Guangdong and the governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi are civil servants, they all have certain military powers and can control the green camps in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. They also have model soldiers directly under their command.

The two pacesetter battalions under the governor are called Fubiao battalions, and the five pacesetter battalions under the governor are called Dubiao battalions.

Because they are directly under the jurisdiction of each governor, the combat effectiveness of the Dubiao camp and the Fubiao camp is generally stronger than that of the Green camp. Of course, the equipment and treatment are also better. The number of the Biao camp is as small as 500 people, and as many as 500 people.

There are more than a thousand people, and there is no customization. This aspect is similar to Green Camp.

"Why is Marquis Jing so flustered? General Muten of Guangzhou is not even worried about you, so why are you anxious? The land of Citigroup's conquest is Japan, and they will leave Xiangshan on their own in the near future."

Ye Mingchen stroked his beard and said very calmly.

It was no secret that the United States declared war on Japan, so Liang Yao informed Ye Mingchen in advance that his troops would rest in Xiangshan for a period of time.

In this regard, Ye Mingchen adhered to his experience in dealing with foreigners and neither agreed nor objected.

But he didn't expect that Liang Yao's soldiers actually numbered more than 4,000 people.

"Ye Shaobao! Muten is a bannerman! He came to Guangzhou to provide for his retirement! You and I are local officials who hold local military and political power. If Guangdong makes mistakes, how can you and I explain to the Holy One?! To the people of Guangdong?!"

Xu Guangjin paused.

Although the Guangzhou General is the highest-ranking official in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, the Guangzhou General does not have much real power. The real power in the Guangzhou and Guangxi regions is actually in the hands of these two governors.

Muten is a bannerman, so if the court pursues the case, it will naturally not severely punish Muten, but the same cannot be said for these two governors.

"If there is no accident in Guangzhou, there will be no accident in Guangdong. Our Fubiao Battalion is responsible for defending the city of Guangzhou and cannot be easily transferred from Guangzhou." Ye Mingchen still looked indifferent.

If Xu Guangjin wants to go to Xiangshan, he won't go alone. As for the two Fubiao battalions under his command, Xu Guangjin can't even think of taking away a single soldier.

"Hey! How confused!"

Xu Guangjin had personally experienced Ye Mingchen's method of treating barbarians. Seeing that Ye Mingchen was not moved at all, he knew that he could not persuade Ye Mingchen, so he had no choice but to leave and take his five supervisory battalions on horseback to Xiangshan.

Xu Guangjin's soldiers arrived at Xiangshan together with the Xiangshan Xielu Battalion. At the same time, he asked Hong Mingxiang, the admiral of the Guangdong Navy, to command the Guangdong Navy. The two armies advanced by land and water and surrounded Liang Yao's Xiangshan military camp.

For a moment, the atmosphere in Xiangshan became tense.

But Liang Yao was not nervous at all. In his eyes, the so-called Supervision Camp was just an elite version of the Green Camp.

There is a qualitative gap between Xu Guangjin's model soldiers and his soldiers in terms of equipment, training level and combat effectiveness.

In the entire Far East, the only thing that could make Liang Yao feel nervous was the British troops stationed on Hong Kong Island. He really didn't pay attention to other troops.

"Finally I met a decent local official." Liang Yao said to Deng Yan happily.

"Second uncle, you once served in the Guangdong Navy. Do you know the current Admiral of the Guangdong Navy, Hong Mingxiang?"

"I don't know much about it. When I was in the Guangdong Navy, I served under Guan Junmen (Guan Tianpei)." Deng Yan shook his head and said, "I only heard that Hong Mingxiang had a close relationship with Governor Xu. Within a year, he was promoted seven times in a row.

class."

"Promoted to seven levels in a row?" Liang Yao was very surprised by this rocket-like promotion speed.

"Yes, within one year Hong Mingxiang was promoted from garrison to commander-in-chief, guerrilla, staff general, deputy general, cooperator, town commander (general soldier), and finally Titai (admiral). He was the most popular figure in the Guangdong Navy at that time.

." Deng Yan said.

"But as for the broken ships of the Guangdong Navy, not to mention Hong Mingxiang, even if Guan Junmen is alive, there is nothing we can do. The ships of the Guangdong Navy are far behind our ships."

Deng Yan's mentality was the same as Liang Yao's, not nervous at all.

He had been in the Guangdong Navy for decades, and had dealt with the Green Camp of the Xiangshan Association. He knew in his heart that neither the Guangdong Navy, the Green Camp of the Xiangshan Association, nor the Supervisor Battalion under Xu Guangjin could threaten him.

"Let's go out and meet Governor Xu for a while."

Liang Yao stood up and said.