1850 American Gold Tycoon

"Why are there so many people here going to Salt Lake City?"

Liang Yao got off the bus at the train station in Reno City. To their surprise, there were more passengers from Reno City to Salt Lake City than to San Francisco.

These passengers heading to Salt Lake City did not carry much luggage, and they did not look like they were immigrating to Salt Lake City, which was indeed a bit abnormal.

Pinkerton invited the newsboy at the station to buy a copy of that day's newspaper. He glanced at the title in the newspaper and handed the newspaper to Liang Yao: "They are all going to Salt Lake City to watch the execution."

"Watching the execution?" Liang Yao took the newspaper, scanned it quickly, and sighed.

"Stanford is really good at making money. It even developed a tourism project for executions and actually sold tickets."

"It is rumored that Mr. Stanford is a man who plucks his hair when a goose passes and leaves his skin when an animal leaves. He is indeed well-deserved." Zeiss was also making noises from the side.

"I heard that more than 16,000 guilty cultists were arrested in Utah this time. Mr. Stanford's tourism project can last at least two or three years, and it is the only one in the United States."

"With so many people arrested at once, I was worried that with the financial resources of the Utah Territory, it would be difficult to provide food, drink and food for more than 16,000 prisoners. I was afraid that these prisoners would destroy the Utah Territory. Now it seems that I was overly worried." Even Liang Yao had to admire this approach. He didn't expect Stanford to be able to squeeze so much money out of death row prisoners.

Selling tickets to the execution ground was not the first of its kind at Stanford. Britain and France, known as models of civilization, also sold tickets to the execution ground at this time.

Not only selling, but also considering the distance from the execution site, the popularity of the prisoner, and the skills of the executioner to set a more reasonable price, which can be said to be a no-brainer. when

The public's enthusiasm for violent and bloody acts has not changed since ancient times. In the information age, the public can feel excited just by watching real war videos and live broadcasts of animal abuse through the screen, let alone watching executions directly and with their own eyes. Witnessing the lives of the same kind disappearing before your eyes.

In this era, no matter in the East or the West, people just regard it as a kind of entertainment and pastime. It is as common as modern people going out to watch a movie or a football game on weekends.

Taking London, the most civilized city at the moment, as an example, there are as many as six to seven thousand people watching a very ordinary hanging.

If the prisoner is famous enough, and the executioner is also a well-known veteran craftsman, he can keep the condemned prisoner alive on the noose long enough for the audience to feast their eyes on. The number of people who came to watch was even greater than the number of people who came to watch the Premier League derby live in later generations.

In order to facilitate the public to watch the execution and to have a disciplinary effect, the London City Government even thoughtfully designated Friday every week as the hanging day, specifically on this day to carry out executions.

"It's not unusual for Californians to go to Salt Lake City to watch the execution. After all, it's close to Salt Lake City and the train fare is cheap. Rich people in the east are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on train tickets to Salt Lake City just to watch the execution."

As he spoke, Pinkerton led a horse.

Funing Mountain Mine is a well-known large mine. Funing Town near the mine also has a population of three to four thousand people and has been connected to Reno City by train for a long time. However, this track often encounters landslides, and more often than not, people can only go to the Funingshan Mine by horse-drawn carriage or horseback.

The sun shines on the rugged ridges, passes through the mountains, outlines the mountains and rivers, and casts long shadows.

Although the sun has risen, it still cannot dispel the winter chill, and the mist rises slowly in the valley, as misty as a gauze.

"The scenery in the west is far more magnificent and stunning than the scenery in the east." Pinkerton admired the beautiful scenery of the inner mountains along the way.

Nearby are dense coniferous forests covered with snow. The white pine frost on the tops of the coniferous trees shines in the sun like shining gems.

In the distance, waterfalls poured down from the top of the mountains, forming a huge stream of water. The water jumps out from the cliff like a white ribbon hanging on the cliff.

"Mr. Pinkerton, don't just enjoy the beautiful scenery. The snow is very thick and it's completely white everywhere. It's easy to get lost. A few years ago, even our governor, a veteran explorer of the west, almost got lost in Nevada." Zeiss untimely interrupted Pinkerton's enjoyment of the beautiful scenery.

"Instead of worrying about getting lost, it's better to worry about landslides." After observing several landslides, Pinkerton quickly discovered anomalies and said to Liang Yao.

"Sir, this is not like a landslide, but more like it was deliberately blown up with explosives to block the railway."

"It is true. There are not many rocks and earthworks covering the railway tracks. It only takes hundreds of people to spend two or three days to clear out these rocks and earthworks blocking the road." Liang Yao also agreed with Pinkerton's point of view.

The big town near Shilino City in Funing Town is not very short of people. Even if it is short of people, as a town built on a silver mine, it still has enough financial resources to hire workers to clean up the rocks and earthwork, repair and restore the damaged railway tracks. Open to traffic.

There are only two possibilities for maintaining the status quo. One is that all the residents of Funing Town are stingy and expensive, and the town government as a whole does nothing. They would rather walk in trouble than spend money to organize road construction.

The other is that the residents of Funing Town do not want outsiders to easily enter Funing Town at the border.

Liang Yao believes that the latter is more likely than the former.

Several old "landslide" traces told him that when the railway was needed as a cheap mode of transportation to transport goods to the outside world, the residents of Funing Town were quite diligent in restoring the railway to traffic.

It seems that this place is indeed unusual.

"Stop! Where are you going? Who introduced you here?"

While he was thinking, Liang Yao was interrogated by an armed sentry.

There were five people in this group, all of whom spoke with strong Fujian accents.

Pinkerton was about to go up and teach these blind sentries a lesson, but was stopped by Liang Yao, who signaled Pinkerton not to alert the enemy.

"I'm from Funing Town inspecting and doing business. I'd like to ask this little brother to be accommodating and let him go." After saying that, Liang Yao made a gesture towards Zeiss.

"Our boss came in a hurry and didn't have anything good to honor the five bosses. Let's treat the money as treating the five bosses to tea." Zeiss understood, took out five five-dollar gold coins and handed them over to the leader without anyone noticing. On the sentry's hand.

In the United States, merchants use paper bills more frequently, but people still prefer to use more substantial gold and silver coins for transactions.

After collecting the money, the expressions of the sentries softened, but they still had no intention of letting him go. The leading sentry continued to ask: "May I ask where this boss is from? For the sake of the tea money, I will just tell you. Understand, Funing Town does not do business with strangers, only with acquaintances, so you should go back the same way. To avoid getting lost in the mountains after dark, there are many wild animals in the mountains, and it is very dangerous at night."

"The first time we were born, the second time we became familiar. We are from the Luoyuan family in Fuzhou Prefecture, next to Funing Prefecture, so we can be considered half fellow villagers." Liang Yao said.

"Although the pronunciation is different in Fujian Province, I can still hear your accent. You are not from Fujian." The sentry was clever and quickly figured out that Liang Yao was not from Fujian.

"Judging from your accent, you must be from Guangfu."

"This little brother is indeed very smart. I am not only from Guangfu, but also from Xiangshan, and my surname is Liang." Liang Yao admitted frankly.

"I'm here to discuss business with Huang Kangrui. I have a way to get mercury, and I can get as much mercury as I want."

Mercury can combine with gold, silver, copper, zinc, tin and other metals to form amalgam. At present, most gold prospectors in the West use the mercury amalgamation method to extract precious metals. Mining areas like Nevada have a huge demand for mercury, and the supply exceeds demand all year round.

More than 70% of California's mercury resources are in the hands of Xiangshan Mining Company.

If other people had made such bold claims and could obtain a large amount of mercury, these sentries would definitely not believe it.

But the man in front of him is majestic and has many retinues, and the retinues are also very well-dressed. At first glance, he is a child of a wealthy family.

These sentries began to murmur in their hearts: Are they really descendants of the Liang family in Xiangshan?

"Since we are the young masters of the Liang family, please forgive me for being negligent. Please let me know."

"Report? Do you want me to sleep in the wilderness in this wilderness?" Liang Yao said displeased.

"Sir, let's put down our dignity and come to discuss business on our own initiative. This guy is still trying to show off to our Liang family. It doesn't matter if he doesn't do the business!" Zeiss also looked like he was about to leave.

"Excuse me, please come with me." Seeing that Liang Yao and others were about to leave, the sentry leader hurriedly retained them and personally took them to Funing Town.