1850 American Gold Tycoon

The starry sky at night outside Provo is exceptionally clear, and the air is exceptionally fresh.

After the torment of the opening ceremony, Liang Yao was a little exhausted physically and mentally.

Now the Pacific Railway, a major transportation artery connecting the east and west, has been repaired.

The drive from Provo to Washington was shortened to about a week, so he decided to stay in Provo for one night before setting off for Washington tomorrow.

Liang Yao rode around Provo with a group of followers.

The moon is extraordinarily bright tonight. Standing on the mountainside, you can have a panoramic view of the city of Provo on the shores of Utah Lake. You can even clearly see the most conspicuous building in the city: the strange and nondescript Mormon church.

"Kruger, if you were asked to build a military fortress along the Pacific Railway, where would you choose?" Liang Yao dismounted and sat on the ground, motioning for Kruger who was following him to sit down with him.

Building military forts along the Pacific Railroad?

Kruger was surprised by Liang Yao's question.

Liang Yao has always had a good relationship with the Indians, so the military fortress built along the Pacific Railway cannot naturally be used to defend against the Indians.

Furthermore, even if the Indians are the imaginary enemy, there is no need to spend such a high price.

The only answer is that Liang Yao built military fortresses along the Pacific Railway to resist threats from the east. To put it bluntly, it was the US military outside the Western Brigade.

Could a civil war break out soon?

Kruger felt very headache when thinking about these political issues, but he did not ask Liang Yao why he had this idea.

He is a purely professional soldier. He asks the questions that should be asked and the questions that should not be asked. Kruger still has this awareness.

Kruger thought for a long time and carefully gave an answer: "Sir, it depends on whether you simply want to protect the railway, or whether you want to protect California, the western end of the railway, and your imaginary enemy."

"Suppose a war breaks out between the East and the West." Liang Yao gave a hypothesis.

With this hypothesis given by Liang Yao, Kruger gave a relatively clear answer: "There are fewer troops in the west and more troops in the east. If a direct conflict breaks out between the east and west, the best way is to follow the transportation artery of the Pacific Railway. , taking advantage of the terrain's advantages for layer-by-layer defense, and purchasing a multi-layer defense system.

Omaha, the starting point of the Pacific Railway, is located in a plain and is easy to attack and difficult to defend, so it is not suitable as the starting point of the defense line.

If it were me, I would choose North Platte City at the entrance of the Rocky Mountains, at the confluence of the South Platte River and the North Platte River, as the starting point of the defense system. "

"Keep talking." Liang Yao nodded, he was quite satisfied with the answer given by Kruger.

The South Platte Valley is the main route into Nebraska Territory and into Colorado Territory, and the North Platte Valley is the main route from Nebraska Territory into Wyoming Territory.

As long as the city of North Platte is controlled at the intersection of the two river valleys, it is equivalent to controlling the throat from the Great Plains to the west into the Rocky Mountains.

This idea coincides with Liang Yao.

“Further west, the Colorado Territory was sparsely populated, less than ten thousand people, and only needed to control the largest settlements in the territory, Denver and Fort Collins.

Although Denver is not on the Pacific Railroad, if it is for military considerations, we can build a branch line to the city of Denver to facilitate effective control of Denver.

In this way, with Fort Collins to the north and Denver to the south, they could form our defense system in the Colorado Territory. The two cities can communicate with each other from the north to the south, and the defenders will not be trapped in an isolated city. "

In 1857, the Colorado Territory was still very desolate, with less than 10,000 settled people on nearly 270,000 square kilometers of land, which was far behind the Utah Territory.

The Colorado Territory was so sparsely populated that there was not even a single settlement in the territory with a population of more than a thousand people.

Denver and Fort Collins, the two largest residential settlements in the territory, have only five to six hundred people.

Vanderbilt was responsible for building the section of the Pacific Railroad that passed through Colorado Territory. For economic reasons, Vanderbilt chose to go through Fort Collins instead of Denver.

But the problem is not big. The distance between Fort Collins and Denver is only a little over 100 kilometers. For the safety of the West Coast, Liang Yao can still afford the price of building a 100-kilometer railway.

Kruger continued: “Further west from the Colorado Territory is the Utah Territory, which is also the most important part of the defense line.

The Utah Territory is more developed than the Colorado Territory and has more people and materials within its territory.

It is also the easiest place for enemy troops to obtain supplies on the entire railway."

"You mean that the Utah Territory can be cleared away if necessary."

Liang Yao said what Kruger did not dare to say.

Kruger nodded: "General, it's clear that Jianbi Qingye is based on the premise of gaining complete control over the Jianbi Qingye area.

If we can't hold on to the wall and clear the country, we will have to hold on to Provo and Salt Lake City in the north.

Both cities were along the railway line, and the defenders could support each other and disperse the enemy's forces. "

Further west is Nevada Territory and the Nevada District of California.

Liang Yao has been operating in the Nevada area for many years. As long as Liang Yao does not act cunningly, it will be almost impossible for the US military in the east, whether it is the Northern Army or the Southern Army, to quickly capture Nevada after traveling long distances over mountains and ridges.

If Nevada cannot be captured in a short period of time, the eastern U.S. military waiting to penetrate Nevada alone will have no choice but to run out of ammunition and food and the entire army will be annihilated.

"You don't need to tell me about Nevada." Liang Yao stood up and patted the debris on his butt.

"Sir, I don't quite understand. Since you know that the completion of the Pacific Railway will pose a strategic threat to the West Coast region, why do you still spend a lot of money to build this railway?" Kruger puzzled.

"The US military in the east can use the Pacific Railway to attack us in the west, so why can't we use the Pacific to go east?" Liang Yao said.

"Every coin has two sides. Considering the economy of the West Coast region, it is impossible for me to give up building this economic artery between the East and the West and give up the huge market in the East just because of potential strategic threats."

The construction of the Pacific Railroad had its pros and cons, but overall the pros outweighed the cons. Liang Yao does not regret building this railway and the Garde Railway under construction in the south.

"On the strategic level, you still think carefully. This is why you can be a general, and I can only be a colonel." Kruger suddenly realized.

"Kruger, I have a task for you." Liang Yao suddenly raised his voice.

"Yes! Your Excellency! Please give instructions!"

When Kruger heard that Liang Yao was going to assign him a task, he hurriedly stood up and saluted Liang Yao, waiting for Liang Yao to issue the task.

"Your Arizona regiment will be stationed in Utah Territory from now on, and the location of the regiment's headquarters will be of your choice.

In addition, if you train a militia in the Utah area, remember that the officers and soldiers of this militia must be non-Mormons. You can apply to me for the necessary weapons funds. "Liang Yao gave Kruger a task.

"Yes! Your Excellency!" Kruger accepted the task.

Krueger understood Liang Yao's character, and he knew that Liang Yao would not allow a religious force, especially an unruly religious force, to control key areas along the Pacific Railway.

The Brigadier General is preparing to clean up the Mormon forces in Utah.

After a week's journey, Liang Yao arrived in Washington, the capital of the United States, from Provo, Utah Territory.

Including the two and a half days it took to get from Sacramento to Provo, the entire trip took no more than 10 days.

Previously, the time it took to travel from California to Washington was measured in months.

Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen, who arrived in the United States for the first time, also had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the eastern United States.

To their disappointment, the eastern region was not much more developed than the cities they visited, including Golden Mountain, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

At this time, people in the eastern states are suffering from the economic crisis. The mood of pedestrians on the streets is very depressed, and few people are seen with smiling faces.

Especially in big cities, unemployed people can be seen everywhere holding wooden signs saying "Looking for work".

There was even a long queue in front of the relief office.

From time to time, you can see unemployed people fighting for relief food.

Therefore, Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen do not think that the east is very good. Instead, they think that Californians live a happier life and the city is cleaner and more orderly.

The Pacific Railroad was full every day as soon as it opened.

Eastern newspapers often described the West Coast as a paradise on earth. After the opening of the Pacific Railroad, traveling from the East to the West Coast was much easier than before.

Therefore, many easterners, especially the eastern middle class, decided to try their luck in the west.

The fare for the New York-Sacramento train sold by the New York Central Railroad Company on the first day of operation was $120.

Even though train tickets are so expensive, they were sold out in just half an hour.

The next day, the New York Central Railroad raised the ticket price to $150 per ticket, and it was still sold out within half an hour.

The third one, priced at $200 a pop, is still sold out.

On the black market, train tickets from New York to Sacramento were once sold for more than $300 each, but they were still hard to come by.

The top management of the New York Central Railroad Company and even Vanderbilt were confused and didn't know how to price it.

Liang Yao originally thought that the price of a train ticket of US$120 would be enough for him to screen out immigrants from the middle class and above to go to the west.

Unexpectedly, he still underestimated the severe economic situation in the east. Many people squandered their wealth, sold their houses and land, just to get a ticket to the west coast.

What's more, the New York-Sacramento train ticket is called a pass to heaven. It seems like the West Coast is paradise.

Even people from the east who couldn't afford to buy tickets didn't give up their plans to go to the west coast.

As soon as the train arrived at the train station, crowds of people rushed up and climbed directly to the roof of the train, just to enjoy the free sign.

Liang Yao had seen such grand events several times along the way, which made him wonder if he had arrived in India and Bangladesh.

I didn’t expect that Americans also cheat on trains.

In sharp contrast, the Sacramento-New York ticket sales are also very good and can be sold out every day.

But people from the West Coast are not nearly as enthusiastic about heading east as people from the East are heading to the West Coast.

Except for a few people on the West Coast who buy train tickets to do business in the East, most of the emerging middle class buy train tickets for the purpose of traveling to the East.

So a ticket to the east was optional for them.

At the Washington Railway Station, after the train stopped, Liang Yao and everyone else had just stepped off the train when a carriage specially prepared for them by Buchanan picked them up and took them to the White House.

With the help of Liang Yao, Shen Baozhen and Buchanan negotiated shipping cooperation matters.

Since Shen Baozhen did not have the decision-making power on the shipping administration, he never gave Buchanan a clear answer.

The more ambiguous Shen Baozhen's attitude became, the more Buchanan believed that it was the recent series of anti-Chinese events in the east that made the Qing envoy unhappy.

Buchanan bowed and apologized to Shen Baozhen and Liang Shaoqiong repeatedly for this, and promised that similar things would never happen in the future. Liang Yao, who was working part-time as a translator, couldn't laugh or cry.

"Okay, Your Excellency the President. Your Excellency the Special Envoy said that he is tired and wants to rest. After returning home, if the Qing Dynasty decides whether to jointly establish a shipping administration with the United Kingdom, France or the United States, we will be notified." Liang Yao said to Buchanan dumbfounded.

It is true that Buchanan's tenure marked the worst period in American history, which made it difficult for Buchanan to do anything.

But this cannot conceal the fact that Buchanan is indecisive and has mediocre abilities.

God gave Buchanan the opportunity to become the master of ZTE, but Buchanan did not seize it and chose to mess up.

The vast majority of politicians in this world follow the rules and are content with the status quo. Courageous politicians who dare to break the status quo and establish new ones are, after all, the few outliers among them.

Buchanan's greatest political achievement during his tenure was to take advantage of the Second Opium War and coerce the Qing Dynasty and the United States to sign the Treaty of Tianjin. This treaty is the first unequal treaty between China and the United States.

"Regarding the recent anti-Chinese incident, I have made a public apology, and relevant compensation has been in place. Mr. Liang, I think the Chinese Chamber of Commerce should also cancel the strike, right?"

After seeing off Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen in person, Buchanan said to Liang Yao. He hopes that Chinese businessmen can call off the strike as soon as possible.

"I will notify the Chamber of Commerce of relevant matters." Liang Yao nodded and said.

"In addition, please help us secure the joint shipping administration with the Qing Dynasty," Buchanan said.

“The federal government is so poor that it almost doesn’t have the money to pay its soldiers.”

This Buchanan is not a newcomer to politics, but a seasoned veteran of American politics, but he still can't speak at all, saying this in front of a powerful general.

Liang Yao frowned when he heard this.