1850 American Gold Tycoon

Fillmore, who was successfully re-elected, returned the favor and quickly submitted the "Pacific Railway Bill" to Congress, and tried his best to promote the smooth passage of the bill.

After the Pacific Railroad Bill was passed by Congress, Liang Yao immediately sent a telegram to the Bank of America headquarters in San Francisco, instructing Bank of America to provide $3 million in funding to the California Railroad Company to start this mega project. Construction begins as planned.

The Eastern Atlantic Railroad also received $1 million in funding from the New York Branch of the Bank of America to assist Vanderbilt's railroad in the construction of the eastern section of the Pacific Railroad.

Vanderbilt was very excited to learn that Congress had passed the Pacific Railroad Bill, and he could finally do something big.

After seeing the documents of the "Pacific Railroad Proposal" with his own eyes, Vanderbilt quickly raised US$2 million in funds from Wall Street. At the same time, he came to Liang Yao, hoping that Liang Yao could find a way to provide him with more railroad workers. It is said that they are Chinese laborers who built the railway.

"This is a huge project, and I need more workers, to be precise, more hardworking and willing Chinese workers," Vanderbilt said.

"How much do you need?" Liang Yao poured a glass of wine for Vanderbilt.

During the expansion of the Nicaraguan Canal route, he provided labor to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was quite kind and provided Chinese laborers with wages that were three-quarters of white laborers.

"Three thousand." Vanderbilt held out three fingers.

"In order to cooperate with your project, I specially transferred manpower from major railway companies and formed a Pacific Railway Company to be responsible for building the Pacific Railway. However, there is still a labor shortage of 5,000 people. For this 5,000 labor shortage, you can do whatever you want. Everyone needs to help me think of a solution.”

Seeing Vanderbilt's rogue face, Liang Yao felt a little amused: "This is our joint engineering project. I can help you find a solution for the labor problem, but I can't get 3,000 people together for you at once. It can only be delivered to you in batches.”

"There are also new explosives. I need a lot of new explosives. I heard that this kind of explosive is several times more efficient in mining and building roads than black powder explosives." Vanderbilt continued.

"This kind of explosive is too dangerous and can easily explode during transportation." Liang Yao shook his head and said.

A week ago, he received a telegram from Nobel. Nobel had successfully created a relatively safe diatomaceous explosive in the laboratory, which is a solid nitroglycerin explosive, and was now looking for an efficient and safe way to detonate it.

In a short period of time, Liang Yao still had to use liquid nitroglycerin explosive, which had relatively high safety risks.

It is extremely dangerous to use nitroglycerin in California, let alone transport it long distances east.

The fastest route from California to the eastern United States: the Nicaragua route, which takes both water and land routes.

During the transportation process, in addition to loading and unloading at the starting point and end point, there is also loading and unloading in Nicaragua, which undoubtedly increases safety risks.

If something goes wrong along the way, the Global Shipping Group, which is responsible for the transportation, will not only lose valuable transport ships, but also bear casualties. This is something Liang Yao cannot accept.

This is also the reason why Liang Yao has not sold nitroglycerin explosives to others.

"Efficiency is more important than safety," Vanderbilt said grimly.

Liang Yao paced back and forth indoors. After thinking for a long time, he finally said: "It is too risky to transport nitroglycerin explosives from California, but I can open an explosives factory in the mining area to produce nitroglycerin explosives for the Pacific Railway Company to build roads. purpose."

As soon as Liang Yao finished speaking, Kony walked in hurriedly and said to Liang Yao: "Sir, the president is looking for you and asks you to go to Washington to see him."

"I know." Liang Yao nodded and said.

Fillmore specially sent a telegram asking Liang Yao to go to Washington to meet him. Liang Yao couldn't refuse, and the president still had to give him face.

Liang Yao put down what he was doing and took a train to Washington to meet with Fillmore.

Liang Yao came to the President's Office in the White House, and Fillmore motioned to his assistant to go out and close the door of the office.

Only Liang Yao and Fillmore were left in the president's office of the University of Nottingham.

Fillmore did not beat around the bush this time, but went straight to the point, directly explaining the purpose of calling Liang Yao to the White House this time: "You are an expert on Eastern issues and the person who knows the most about Asia in the United States. I come to you this time because I want to consult." Something about the Far East to solve our American Eastern problem."

After speaking, Fillmore pointed to the chair next to Liang Yao and motioned for Liang Yao to sit down.

"I wonder what questions Mr. President would like to ask?" Liang Yao asked after sitting down.

"China."

Fillmore crossed the message on his desk to Liang Yao.

"In March, the rebels of the Qing Dynasty occupied Jiangning, an important city in the south, and made the city their capital. As far as I know, this rebel force was only established in 1851 and was short-lived. To capture such an important city in just two years does it mean that this new government will replace the Qing government and become the new government of China.

If so, will they recognize the treaty signed between the Qing government and us? I want to know which side to support is more in line with our American interests in China. "

This year is destined to be an unstable year. Not only is the European continent not peaceful, the Near East is not peaceful, the Middle East is not peaceful, and even the Far East is not peaceful.

War was about to break out between Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire. This was something most American politicians, including Fillmore, could see.

However, they did not understand or understand the situation in the Far East. Fillmore wanted to hear Liang Yao's opinions in this regard.

Telegraph companies in the United States are basically private companies, and many confidential information from the government are transmitted through these telegraph companies.

This time, the news that the Taiping Rebellion contributed to Jiangning, that is, Nanjing, and established its capital in Nanjing, was transmitted from California to Washington through Liang Yao's telegraph company.

Because there is only one telegraph line from the west coast to the east, and this line was originally built with money from Liang Yao.

Liang Yao had already read this telegram before it was placed in Fillmore's office.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured Nanjing and changed its name to Tianjing. This happened in March, and it is already June. At this time, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's Northern Expedition army had already followed the path of the enemy, quickly captured Yandu, and headed straight for Qingyao's lair. , Emperor Xianfeng who wanted to capture the demon head Qing Yao alive.

The treaties Fillmore mentioned that the Qing government had signed with the United States were not only the relatively equal "Qing-U.S. Free Immigration Treaty" signed by the two countries in 1852, but also the treaty in July 1844, immediately following the signing of the British "Treaty of Nanjing" , the "Five-port Trade Charter: Customs Tariffs" signed in Wangxia Village, Macao, is the unequal treaty "Wangxia Treaty".

In this treaty, except that the British side did not obtain the rights and interests of land cessation and compensation obtained in the "Treaty of Nanjing", the United States also obtained all other rights and interests.

Since the terms of the "Treaty of Wangxia" in the United States were more complete and detailed, in October of that year, France also used the "Treaty of Wangxia" as a template to sign the "Treaty of Huangpu" with the Qing government.

Fillmore attaches no less importance to the "Mongolia Treaty" than the "Long-term Treaty" signed with the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan last year and the "U.S.-Japan Goodwill Treaty".

"Supporting the Qing Dynasty, China is a secular country, and those who supported the Taiping Rebellion were a group of fanatical religious elements with romantic illusions. It was impossible to replace the Qing government."

Liang Yao gave Fillmore a very clear answer.

He had no favorable impression of the Qing Dynasty, but he also had no favorable impression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Hong Xiuquan was also the leader of the Peasant Rebellion Army, but he was not as talented and powerful as Zhu Yuanzhang. He was just a leader of a cult in name only, without the air of an emperor.

Even if Hong Xiuquan has one-tenth of Zhu Yuanzhang's ability, Liang Yao is willing to raise a sum of money to invest in Hong Xiuquan.

What future can there be for a regime that makes decisions based on the possession of a great god, the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Brother?

From the uprising in 1851 to the overthrow of the regime in 1864, it is evident that not a single Jinshi defected to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime.

This shows that after the successful uprising, the ruling class of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not understand that they had to rely on the landlords and gentry if they wanted to rule the country.

Six years before Zhu Yuanzhang became King of Wu, he already had the Jinshi of the Yuan Dynasty represented by Liu Bowen serving him, winning the support of the landlords and gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and helping him establish a stable ruling base in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and unified the National basis.

Liang Yao had no intention of denying the justice of the majority of peasants in the Taiping Army who resisted the Qing government. He just despised most of the Taiping leadership for being ignorant and greedy for pleasure.

As for the few sober leaders within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they are just pitiful burial objects.

Supporting the Taiping Rebellion is worse than supporting a local warlord.

Furthermore, Liang Yao still hoped that the Qing government could exist until a local warlord emerged in China who was capable of unifying the country.

If the Qing government collapses early, the future of China's northern territories will be unpredictable due to the greed of Tsarist Russia. This is not a situation Liang Yao wants to see.

Of course, choosing to side with the Qing government between the Taiping Rebellion and the Qing government is also in line with the actual interests of the United States. Because the Qing government recognizes the Treaty of Wangxia, Liang Yao also needs to obtain a steady stream of immigrants from China to expand his influence. California base.

"I thought you were going to have a long talk with me about the details and situation in China." Fillmore laughed.

"I can't finish China's affairs in three days and three nights. I think you have just been re-elected and there are still many things to deal with. You don't have such ample time." Liang Yao replied, "What you need is an indirect and reliable person. Answer as a reference."

"I understand." Fillmore nodded, and then talked about the Japanese issue, "His Excellency Townsend Harris of the American Company in Japan, and Colonel Deng Yan, Commander-in-Chief of the American Garrison in Nagasaki also called. Following our United States, Warships from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Russia and other countries entered Edo Bay one after another, demanding a trade treaty and asking me for instructions on how to deal with this matter."