1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 585 Ready for war

Once the announcement by the governors and finance ministers of the three West Coast states was issued, the entire western region was shocked.

It is not that people in the west have not been exposed to paper currency.

It's just that the so-called paper currencies they had come into contact with before were bank notes, which could only be exchanged by the bank that issued the bank notes, and required a long period of proofreading and review, which was not very convenient to use.

The circulation scope of bank notes is also limited to the middle and upper class people in the business community, because only these people are the main customers of the bank. Ordinary people still used metal coins for transactions.

This issuance can be freely exchanged at the state banks in the three West Coast states and the five traditional banks in the West without the need to produce any personal certificates. This means that holding these banknotes can be cashed in almost all cities and major settlements in the West.

Its liquidity cannot be compared with the bank notes of any private bank, and even the most powerful Bank of America cannot do this.

At first, people were skeptical about the announcements by the governors and finance ministers of the three West Coast states.

However, there are still many people who take metal coins to state banks in various states to exchange for some small red bills.

Many of these people who exchanged red banknotes came for compensation ten times the amount of the rejected money.

But to their regret, they were unable to obtain compensation ten times the amount of the rejection. Because they can take these red banknotes and freely exchange them for equivalent metal coins across banks or even across states.

Gradually, more and more people in the west began to use this beautiful and exquisite red banknotes directly in daily transactions, and they were too lazy to go to the bank to yellow them into metal coins immediately after receiving the red banknotes.

Once you get to the bank, you have to queue up. Secondly, the price of these red banknotes is very strong. There is no essential difference between holding these red banknotes and directly holding gold and silver coins, and it is more convenient.

After all, you can put $1,000 worth of red bills in your crotch, but you can’t put the equivalent amount of gold in your crotch.

Later, some bold European businessmen, Qing businessmen, and Japanese businessmen also began to try to use these newly issued red banknotes in small amounts after hearing that they could be exchanged for equivalent metal coins and gold and silver at the member banks of the Western Reserve Committee. The banknotes were raised and exchanged for metal coins and gold and silver at the five major ports of the Qing Dynasty, Xiangshan, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, as well as the Bank of America in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and even St. Petersburg.

At the beginning, these merchants were just trying it out, but they did not expect to have an unimpeded exchange process.

These merchants who engage in cross-border trade see how convenient it is to use the red banknotes of the Western Reserve Committee, and their acceptance of using red banknotes in transactions is getting higher and higher.

At the end of 1859, taking advantage of the good financial situation of California and the increase in the production of new standard weapons, the General Liang M1857 rifle, 6-pound and 12-pound Sacramento field guns, and the Thunder M60 machine gun, Liang Yao began to formally control the militia under his jurisdiction throughout the western region. The armed forces undergo regular transformation and reorganization.

Since 1851, Liang Yao had attached great importance to the training of militiamen in various places, and often dispatched non-commissioned officers of active standing troops to various places to be responsible for training militiamen. Even in the military training in middle schools, retired or even active non-commissioned officers serve as instructors.

Therefore, the reserve force in the western region is very abundant, and the process of formalizing, transforming and reorganizing the militia has been very smooth.

In terms of infantry, this reorganization uses the original three standing regiments as the team, and the regiments are expanded into brigades.

The California Infantry Regiment was reorganized into the 101st Brigade, the Oregon Infantry Regiment was reorganized into the 102nd Brigade, and the Arizona Infantry Regiment was reorganized into the 103rd Brigade.

The non-commissioned officers required for the reorganization are selected from outstanding active-duty veterans and promoted to non-commissioned officers. The required company commanders, battalion commanders, and regiment commanders are also selected and promoted from the active-duty officers in the original standing regiments.

The three infantry brigades have the same organization. Each brigade has three infantry regiments, one brigade artillery battalion equipped with 24 12-pound Sacramento guns, one brigade machine gun battalion equipped with 36 Thunder M60 machine guns, one brigade cavalry battalion, and one brigade artillery battalion. The engineering battalion, a guard company responsible for ensuring the security of the brigade headquarters, and a baggage regiment responsible for supporting logistics.

Each brigade has a personnel strength of 7,500 at full strength.

The regiment is a basic combat unit. At full strength, each regiment has three infantry battalions, an artillery company equipped with 8 6-pound Sacramento guns, a machine gun company equipped with 12 Thunder M60 machine guns, and a logistics company responsible for supporting logistics. even. At full strength, each regiment has 1,500 personnel.

In addition to the three basic infantry brigades, Liang Yaoshang has an independent artillery regiment, a cavalry regiment mainly composed of Indians, as well as the Mongolian cavalry regiment and Sauron cavalry battalion that are being trained but have not yet fully formed combat effectiveness.

After the formalization and reorganization of the militia, the number of regular armed forces in the entire western region has reached 27,400. This scale is already the limit that the entire western region can currently bear.

During this process of formalizing and reorganizing the militia, Liang Yao also took the initiative to establish the Sacramento Military Academy in Sacramento to train younger officers, especially artillery officers and cavalry officers.

At the same time, Liang Yao asked the Sacramento Arsenal to operate at full capacity to produce guns and ammunition, and stockpile large quantities of strategic materials such as grain, medical supplies, sugar, blankets, and cloth.

These supplies were continuously transported via the Pacific Railroad to major cities and settlements along the Pacific Stairway Railroad.

For example, Reno and Carson in the Nevada Territory, Salt Lake City and Provo in the Utah Territory, Denver in the Colorado Territory, and North Platte in the Nebraska Territory.

Liang Yao spent the entire second half of 1859 reorganizing his troops, stockpiling strategic materials, and establishing a complete wartime warehousing and logistics system.

During this period, Liang Yao and the elites in the west also paid attention to the political situation in the east, namely the upcoming 16th presidential election.

Unlike other people's concerns, Liang Yao's focus is mainly on the Republican Party.

Although he has the ability to know more than 160 years later, he has been in this time and space for ten years and has had an impact on the original world line of this world.

Therefore, although Liang Yao knew the common sense that Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, he could not guarantee whether there would be any accidents.

After all, this time the British and French forces did not break into the capital city, and his fifth uncle Liang Shaoqiong became the damn governor of Liangjiang. God knows whether something will go wrong in this American presidential election.

On November 10, 1859, a piece of seemingly inconspicuous political news was published in Western newspapers: Simon Cameron, one of the strong contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, was investigated for suspected massive corruption.

After internal discussions and research within the Republican Party, and in order to calm the pressure of public opinion and restore the Republican Party's white lotus image as an emerging and promising political party in the minds of the public, to be precise, in the minds of the people in the north, the Republican Party disqualified Simon Cameron from being nominated for president.