1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 364 Fighting with weapons

After the afternoon sun passed, the temperature dropped quickly.

Temperatures vary greatly in different regions of California. Generally speaking, Southern California is warmer than Northern California, and the plains are warmer than the mountains.

Stockton, where Liang Yao is currently located, is located in the San Joaquin River Valley of the Central Valley. It is the largest plain in California, but this is Northern California, and you can still feel the coolness clearly in the evening in mid-October.

Chen Baoliang suggested warming up by the stove before having dinner.

Liang Yao agreed to Chen Baoliang's proposal. He happened to also want to visit the school in Stockton town.

After making up their minds, everyone rode to school.

Before he had taken a few steps, there was a burst of sporadic gunshots not far away.

"Where are the guns being fired?!" Liang Yao frowned.

The entire California army was under the control of Liang Yao, and the garrison of each regiment and company was personally arranged by Liang Yao.

Liang Yao also remembered the deployment location of each unit clearly. He was sure that he had no troops stationed near Stockton. Not even militiamen.

Liang Yao guessed that it might be the police from the Stockton Police Department who were shooting, but this idea was quickly rejected by Liang Yao himself.

The California police have already changed their police equipment. Police stations in various places, no matter how big or small, are issued the Sacramento version of Colt revolvers specially purchased by the Police Department from the Sacramento Arsenal.

The gunfire that came was obviously not that of a short gun, but that of a long gun.

Judging from the sound of the gun and the rate of fire, it is probably a Springfield M1842 rifle or other old-fashioned musket.

This outdated rifle is no longer even equipped by the California militia. Except for the California Infantry Regiment, the rest of Liang Yao's troops are all equipped with Walter M1851 rifles.

Although California does not ban guns and allows people to purchase firearms for self-defense and to guard against wild animals that appear from time to time, there are still certain restrictions on firearms held by ordinary people. Rifled firearms are not allowed to circulate in the private market.

"It came from near Hongti Village. It is estimated that the new immigrants in Hongti Village were fighting with the old immigrants." Chen Baoliang muttered, as if he had long been used to this kind of thing.

His accustomed expression told Liang Yao that this kind of thing happened not once or twice.

"Fighting with weapons? Aren't you afraid of killing someone with such a fighting method?" Liang Yao's heart tightened.

"They were all shooting in the air to scare each other. No one dared to point the gun at each other. They didn't want to get involved in a life-threatening lawsuit, so they still had a sense of proportion. As soon as the gunshots were fired, the police in the town were probably already on their way.

, nothing will happen." Chen Baoliang said.

Liang Yao stopped his horse and asked about the reason for the fighting in Hongti Village: "What are the conflicts between the old and new immigrants? Why are they fighting?"

The immigrants in Hongti Village drew guns and fought. Even if they didn't intend to kill each other, there must be deep grudges between the two sides. It was not as simple as an ordinary conflict.

"Why else? It's all about money," Chen Baoliang replied.

"Money problem?" Liang Yao asked.

"Yes, it's a question of money. Hongti Village is engaged in growing grapes. Now is the harvest season. When merchants come to harvest grapes, new immigrants are short of money and often like to sell at low prices. They want to get rid of the grapes in their hands as soon as possible. Old

The immigrants were resentful of the new immigrants, and the prices of the grapes in the hands of the new immigrants were pushed down. Naturally, the prices of the grapes in their hands had to be reduced in order to be sold." Chen Baoliang talked about the whole story.

"Don't we have a Farmers' Association? What does your Farmers' Association do? How did you become the president of the Farmers' Association?" Liang Yao said angrily, "These are all matters within your Farmers' Association!"

"There is an agricultural cooperative, but when it was first established, it only required grain growers to join the cooperative, and there were no hard requirements for growers of other crops." Chen Baoliang explained, "To join the agricultural cooperative, you need to pay membership fees every year.

Moreover, many new immigrants don’t know what the Agricultural Cooperative is and are worried that they will have to pay other fees to join the Agricultural Cooperative, so even if some new immigrants persuade them, they are unwilling to join the Agricultural Cooperative.”

"To put it bluntly, our Agricultural Association is still not doing its job properly and cannot handle this matter clearly. The matter of setting up a city in Stockton will be put on hold for the time being. When there is no more fighting, we can then consider setting up a city.

"Liang Yao scolded.

"If you don't want to join, persuade them. If you can't persuade them, ask the state assembly to legislate to force all farmers, old and new, to join agricultural associations. Do you want me to teach you how to do this?"

Hongti Village is less than 10 kilometers away from Stockton Town. Liang Yao and his party quickly arrived at Hongti Village on horseback.

This is a village that specializes in growing grapes. Villagers in the entire village mainly make a living by growing grapes. There are 260 grape growers.

About 90 of these growers are new immigrants, while the others are old immigrants.

Of course, new immigrants and old immigrants are a very vague concept. For example, in the eyes of immigrants in 1850, immigrants in 1851 are all new immigrants.

In the face of the immigrants of 1854, the immigrants of 1853 felt that they were old immigrants.

It may be more appropriate to call them grape growers who are willing to lower prices and grape growers who are unwilling to lower prices.

Liang Yao galloped through the path among the grape vines, and scattered grapes could be seen everywhere. Some grape trellises had been destroyed, and the grape vines on the trellises had been cut off. What's worse, even the grape vines were directly destroyed. This shows the depth of the contradiction between the two parties.

.

When I arrived at the square in the village, I saw that the people in the square were divided into three groups. One group was the old growers who were unwilling to sell grapes at a lower price due to the large number of people, while the other group was a slightly thinner group of new growers who wanted to sell grapes at a lower price.

The remaining group were grape buyers sitting next to the freight carriage, smoking cigarettes and watching the show.

Grape growers are in civil strife, and these grape buyers are the biggest beneficiaries, so they are happy to watch on the sidelines, waiting to reap the benefits.

The police who came from Stockton have confiscated the farmers' firearms, but fierce conflicts still broke out among these farmers, but the weapons of the fight were changed from hot weapons to cold weapons.

Although the police from Stockton had arrived at the scene, as almost the entire village of Hongti Village was involved in the armed fight, the more than 20 policemen from Stockton were still unable to prevent the conflict from further expanding.

Soon, the conflicts between these villagers escalated from verbal conflicts to physical conflicts. Thousands of people, men, women, old and young, picked up stones on the ground and other debris that could be thrown and threw them into the other group.

After the accompanying guards fired a burst of shots into the sky, the commotion among the crowd gradually subsided.

The riots subsided during the war, but the anger on both sides did not.

(End of chapter)