1850 American Gold Tycoon

It only takes seven hours to reach San Francisco by heading west along the American River along the Sacramento River Pier.

But to go upriver from San Francisco to Sacramento, even taking a steam steamer would take sixteen or seventeen hours, or even longer.

Small steamers and schooners on the American River are constantly coming and going. This inland waterway connects the two most important cities in California: San Francisco and Sacramento, greatly improving the efficiency of the exchange of people and materials between the two places.

The American River is 9 meters deep and is a navigable river. However, the river is not wide enough. The average width of the river is less than 20 meters, and the transportation capacity is limited.

If you want to further improve transportation efficiency, you still need to build roads and railways, especially railways!

"You took away the two best steamships in my fleet. Now my fleet consists of five small sailing ships of three to four hundred tons and one broken and small paddle steamer! You promised me the thousand Where’s the big steamship?”

The ship Sacramento arrived in San Francisco, and Liang Yao disembarked at the riverside pier in San Francisco.

Sven buzzed in Liang Yao's ears like a fly.

"Captain Sven, Mr. Vanderbilt will arrive in San Francisco within two days, and there will be news about your ship soon."

Strauss sent away the noisy Sven for Liang Yao.

On the river pier, Deng Wenshun was waiting on the river bank with more than thirty members of the Loyalty Church wearing black Chinese tunic suits and wearing the California black bear badge on their left chest.

Behind them were a dozen new members who had just passed the review and were preparing for the initiation ceremony.

After eliminating Brannan's remaining forces, Liang Yao carried out a large-scale expansion of the Loyalty Society in order to exercise effective control over San Francisco.

The original members of the Loyalty Association were only Liang Yao and his five cousins. Even if you include the witness Deng Yan, there were only seven people, and the hierarchy was not very strict.

After a new round of expansion, the Loyalty Association has developed into a large organization with 680 members.

Official members of the organization wear black or gray tunic suits.

If you want to further identify their status in the meeting, you can tell them by the badges they wear on their left chests.

Those who wear the copper black bear badge are novice members who have not yet officially joined the congregation. They have the lowest status in the congregation and the lowest salary. Their monthly salary is only 6 ounces of gold.

Although the monthly salary of 6 ounces of gold seems a lot, this is in California, where prices are exaggerated. If you want to live a decent life in California, you need a job with a monthly salary of at least 20 ounces.

Of course, considering that the Loyalty Association manages the board and lodging of its members, they can have an income of 6 ounces of gold every month to cover other trivial expenses, and they can live a subsistence life in California.

Mainly because you can see hope in the Loyalty Club. Once you are promoted to a formal member, your monthly salary will reach 12 ounces of gold, and you will receive a silver black bear medal that only formal members of the Loyalty Club are eligible to wear.

The Loyalty Association takes care of food and housing. If you have a monthly income of 12 ounces of gold, you can save a lot of gold in a year and send it back to your hometown to buy a house and land for your son to study.

However, this is the idea of ​​​​the unpromising person. The promising person has now sent a message back to ask his relatives and friends to come to Citi Country to pan for gold, so that he can have someone to rely on.

Further up are the senior congregants who earn a monthly salary of 20 ounces of gold and wear gold black bear badges. They are also called deacons. To put it bluntly, they are the junior leaders of the Loyalty Association. It is also the ultimate goal of most people.

What is more ambitious is to become the middle and high-level members of the Loyalty Association.

The middle and high-level members wear not the black bear badge, but the better-looking and more exquisite dragon head badge.

It is also divided into three types according to different levels: gold, silver, and bronze. It is a supreme honor to be qualified to wear the dragon head badge.

As long as you wear the dragon head badge, you are eligible to participate in the dividends of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company. Xiangshan Gold Mining Company is currently the largest gold mining company in California. As for the specific income, ordinary members like them cannot know. .

Currently, only the five brothers of the Deng family, as well as the legion commander, a few clan chiefs who only follow the leader's lead, and the four ghost guys whom Da Longtou trusts are eligible to wear the dragon head badge.

The commander of the legion was Da Longtou's second uncle Deng Yan. He was in charge of a 150-man escort for Da Longtou, also called the legion.

Becoming a member of the legion is another way to make a fortune, but legion members have extremely high physical fitness requirements. Of course, being able to read and use muskets proficiently can be a bonus.

Members of the Legion are not only responsible for their own food and accommodation, but also for their immediate family members. Their salary is also higher than that of ordinary members of the Loyalty Association. The salary of ordinary Legion members is 18 ounces of gold per month, which is only slightly lower than that of senior members of the Loyalty Association. .

However, everything has a price. Not only are the legion members strictly managed, but they also have to be trained by two ghost coaches every day, either training or shooting. Life is very hard.

Of course, both the Loyalty Association and the Legion serve one person!

That was the big dragon head who had just stepped off the fire wheel, wearing a gold dragon head badge on his chest!

That is the existence that both the Loyalty Association and the Legion say are the same.

The Chinese people in California can hold their heads high and not be bullied by foreign devils because of this big leader. Even the police chief of Gui Lao has to say hello politely when he sees the big leader.

Since Brannan's death, things have changed in California. It's not that the Chinese are afraid of foreigners, but that the foreigners are afraid of them!

Why? Just because there is a big faucet! Big Dragon Head is now the most wealthy and powerful person in California!

"Great dragon head!"

Dozens of Loyalists shouted from the bottom of their hearts on the San Francisco riverfront pier.

"Hello, brothers!"

Liang Yao raised his hand in response, signaling the initiation ceremony for new members to begin.

The incense table and the statue of Guan Gong had already been placed on the pier. Liang Yao took the lead in offering incense to Guan Gong and kowtowed.

The new and old members of the Loyalty Association also followed closely behind. Although the two new members, Lao Maozi, did not understand and did not know which Eastern god was placed on the table, they kowtowed in the same way, just watching and comparing their movements. funny.

The two old men believe in Orthodox Christianity, but in front of gold, faith is no longer important.

Even though they have believed in God for so many years, they have not seen God bless them with wealth. As long as they kowtow to the unknown Eastern god in front of them and join the Loyalty Society, they can live a life of superiority, whether they are American, Irish or The Mexicans didn't dare to bully them anymore.

After paying homage to Guan Gong, there is a braid-cutting ceremony, where old members will cut braids for new members.

When it was the turn of two old men, the veteran members were in trouble. One of these two old men was bald, the other was Mediterranean, and they had nothing to cut off.

Finally, the old member holding the scissors focused his attention on the thick beards of the two old men. They had no hair, so they could cut their beards. They were all haircuts anyway.

After the fifteen new members had their braids cut, Liang Yao felt that they looked much more pleasing to the eye. The big braids of the Zhongshan assembly looked awkward no matter how they looked.

Deng Wenshun walked up to Liang Yao holding the newly minted black bear bronze medal and asked Liang Yao to award the medal to the new member.

Liang Yao handed the numbered black bear bronze medals to the new members one by one in order.

"Wen Shun, the Loyalty Association needs to establish new churches in Los Angeles and Tijuana. You will be responsible for the new churches in Los Angeles."

Los Angeles will become the second largest city in the United States after New York in the future. It is also the cultural industry center of the United States and the world. Industrial groups representing American cultural symbols such as Hollywood, Disney, and Universal are all located in Los Angeles.

History has proven that Los Angeles has as much development potential as San Francisco.

But now Los Angeles is just a small town with a population of only 1,500, which can also be said to be a village. He needs to control Los Angeles as soon as possible.

As for Tijuana, it is a small border town on the U.S.-Mexico border in Baja California.

At the moment, Canada is still a British colony. The focus of the British Empire's development in Canada is the Hudson Bay region in southeastern Canada. Western Canada is a wilderness with few colonial strongholds.

The Pacific Railway is still gone. Vanderbilt is working on opening a route from the eastern United States-Nicaragua-California, but it is still being developed and has not yet been opened to navigation.

Liang Yao wanted to engage in foreign trade and obtain daily necessities that he could not produce on his own for the time being. He had only Mexico and a few countries on the isthmus of Central America to choose from.

"What about Tijuana? Leave it all to the ghost guy?"

Deng Wenshun asked.

"When Wenyao and Sartre's contract expires, Wenyao will be sent to Tijuana to practice."

Because Deng Wenyao had been ill for more than half a month, his employment contract with Sartre had not been terminated so early, and Sartre refused to release him. Liang Yao could only wait for their employment contract to expire before sending Deng Wenyao to Tijuana.

Liang Yao, a member of the Mexican-American Loyal Society, was really not at ease with Tijuana being completely handed over.

Today's San Francisco is a melting pot of races. Everyone comes here from all over the world in pursuit of gold. In addition to Americans and Chinese, there are Russians, French, Australians, Peruvian Indians, Indian Brahmins, Japanese People, Mexicans, Maoris, you name it.

The Loyalty Association has also attracted many members from these ethnic groups. Of course, the majority are still Chinese.

Two steam clippers of approximately five to six hundred tons sounded their piercing whistles and sailed into the port of San Francisco, as if in a demonstration.

A white employee came to report the situation to Liang Yao. The employee spoke French, and Strauss relayed the situation to Liang Yao with a complicated expression.

"The Eastern Consortium's fleet has arrived in San Francisco."

"Do you know which family you are from?"

Liang Yao frowned slightly, wouldn't the Eastern Consortium not arrive in San Francisco until the end of the year at the earliest?

It was only June now, how could they reach San Francisco around Cape Horn in South America so quickly.

I remember that at this time Vanderbilt's plan to dig a canal in Nicaragua to connect several river lakes in Nicaragua was still on paper.

Could it be that these people from the Eastern Consortium flew here?