1850 American Gold Tycoon

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

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

If Liang Yao were to become a major, he would not be surprised at all by an officer of the lieutenant colonel level.

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 to an official 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 ministerial-level officials, 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, so it's not my turn. I see that you have lost a lot of weight. This ocean voyage must be difficult."

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 become a general in the United States. It not only requires the recognition 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 reduction in food rations. There were no problems along the way, and they arrived in California smoothly.

If it had been a white passenger, the trip probably wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

"Fortunately."

Liang Yao patted Si Wen on the shoulder and said.

He understood why Sven 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 immigration has been handed over to 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 training is required to make them familiar with the operations 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."

He doesn't expect TCL to make money at the moment. If he wants TCL to make money quickly, he won't let Sven go to all the trouble to transport immigrants across the dangerous route across the Pacific.

“Strauss also last year recruited over two hundred men from the eastern states, and Mr. Vanderbilt 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 is more than 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 have a big financier with a gold mine behind you.

Sven is now a little worried that Vanderbilt's status as the shipping king will soon be lost. Liang Yao's expansion speed 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 ships 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 with 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 shells 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 wrapped with iron sheets, or adding iron sheets to existing ships. This gave rise to a new round of naval arms race.

Then France once again was at the forefront of the times. Not only did it replace the thin iron shell shells with cast iron, further enhancing the lethality of the shells, it also launched the epoch-making HMS Glorious ironclad 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 emergence of the Glory directly led to the arrival of the ironclad era.

"It's also 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 attitude and fear of chaos, he would not place an order with a British shipyard.

If the British are willing to sell you something, it will never be a good thing.

"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 Bank, the Pan family's Tongfu Bank, the Lu family's Guangli Bank, the Ye family's Yee Shing Bank and other Dongxing Bank, Tianbao Bank, Xingtai Bank, Zhonghe Bank, Shuntai Bank, Yanhe Bank, Tongxing Bank Shunxing, Xuetaixing, Dongchangxing, and Anchangxing all sent people over.

But after understanding, 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 were originally from Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, and had a lot of interactions with Fujian businessmen. It was not surprising that Fujian businessmen 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 there were immigrants with Guangxi accents among the immigrants this time.

"Are there any Guangxi people among the immigrants on the ship?"

Liang Yao asked curiously, Guangxi's presence was not high 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 has taken 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 suppressed by the Taiping rebel army, rather than the Taiping rebel army being suppressed by the Qing court. Wu Yuanhua is 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 for a visit."

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

These businessmen have been living in the five trading areas and dealing 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 can 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. Liang also brought a letter to me for Shi Zhongtuo."

With that said, Wu Yuanhua took out the three-cent letter from his sleeve and handed it to Liang Yao.

Liang Yao took the letter and put it in 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.

So they took the Wu family's boat to California, figuring they could 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. I heard that Liang is going to the court to take care of the matter, hoping to be reinstated. Congratulations to my dear brother, my dear brother has single-handedly made the Liang family happy. Tao Zhongxing.”