New Ming Empire mixed in America

After inspecting the construction of the factory area, Li Mingqi felt deeply ashamed of his laziness during this period.

Since all he paid were crown coins made of aluminum, he didn't care how much he spent.

The previous construction of the weapons factory was completely left to Joyce.

Maybe it's because you want to build an ideal weapons factory, or maybe it's because you want to provide more jobs for those bankrupt workers.

So Joyce took advantage of Li Mingqi's attention not being focused on him and played a trick of cutting first and showing later.

All factory buildings are first laid with foundations, connected with pipelines, and even route planning is done. Even the warehouses required for each factory building are planned according to the demand for raw materials.

Wearing a safety helmet, Li Mingqi looked at the workers waving their tools vigorously and nodded with satisfaction.

Next, Li Mingqi took the losers for a walk around the pier.

Watching the steam cranes mounted on high fixed frames roaring continuously, Li Mingqi regained a sense of future generations.

Today, the short route from San Francisco to the Long Beach Pier is filled with steamships transporting materials.

Li Mingqi even saw two sail warships on the sea not far from the pier...

Wait, battleship!?

He raised the telescope again and looked at the two battleships on the sea in the distance.

The first thing you see is the national flag flying on the battleship.

The Spanish flag with red, yellow and red colors and a coat of arms is waving in the wind.

It is a pity that this old and weakened empire lost all its North American colonies decades ago.

This time, the Spanish warship appeared here for no apparent reason, and it seemed to be heading directly towards them.

At this time, there were already flag bearers on the dock waving flags to the Spanish warships, asking them about their intention.

Through the telescope, there were sailors on Spanish ships waving flags regularly.

Passing the binoculars to Davis, the former commander of the 2nd California Cavalry Regiment who had been accompanying him and is now an instructor in the New Ming Empire Defense Force, said:

"What do you think they're talking about?"

Davis took the telescope and looked at it for a long time, and then replied helplessly: "Sir, I am from the Army, and I can't understand the Navy's flags."

You can’t understand and you’re talking so much?

After snatching back the telescope, Li Mingqi was going to take people to the office of the dock construction company to ask.

Don't worry about the warships at sea. This place still belongs to the United States for the time being, and the bear flag of the Republic of California is flying on the pier.

As for why not hang the Stars and Stripes?

Li Mingqi's strong opposition is only from one aspect. The biggest reason is that the American flag was updated very quickly during this period.

During the Mexican-American War, the first flag flown in California was the Bear Star Flag of the Republic of California.

Therefore, when it comes to what flag to hang, Californians still prefer the Bear Star Flag.

At least before the railroad was built, people here on the West Coast had only a conceptual impression of the United States.

And as we all know, California has joined the United States as the Republic of California since ancient times.

By the way, similar to the California Republic is the Lone Star Republic: Texas.

Before Li Mingqi could get up, a middle-aged, slightly bald man ran out of the only two-story wooden house on the pier.

This is Ron, the director of Long Beach Marina, the construction company.

After he learned that Li Mingqi had come to inspect, he asked people to prepare for the reception, while he waited in the hall.

Who knew that after waiting for a long time, someone informed him that Li Mingqi went directly to the construction site.

So he hurried out to greet Li Mingqi, the company's most important customer at present.

"You're here just in time, tell me what the ship's flag says?"

Li Mingqi handed the binoculars to the middle-aged slightly bald man.

After Ron looked at it for a while, he said: "Don't worry, sir, that's just a warship here for supplies and repairs. You see, it didn't even open the gun door cover on the gun window."

"I heard from the shipowner who came back from the Far East that there was a particularly big storm at sea two days ago. With the speed of these two warships, they were probably affected by the storm."

When he heard that the warship was only here for supplies, Li Mingqi no longer worried. He raised his telescope and concentrated on admiring the last heroic appearance of the sailing warship.

After the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Spain's navy showed its weakness.

What appeared on the sea at this time were two third-level sailing battleships returning from the Far East.

The hulls of the two ships were leaking in many places. The front mast of one of the ships was missing, and the bow was also broken.

The two battleships staggered for more than an hour before entering the dock. Since the Long Beach dock is only a prototype, it is impossible for the two battleships to be repaired in a short time after docking.

Looking at the groups of naval soldiers coming off the battleship, Li Mingqi led the losers back to the camp.

These Spaniards had just returned from the Far East, and there must be people among them who were very familiar with the Qing Dynasty. He had to go back and think of a perfect way to deal with it.

Judging from the damaged condition of the two battleships, it is estimated that these guys will not be able to leave in half a month.

The arrival of a group of professional soldiers put Li Mingqi under tremendous pressure.

These were just two third-level sailing battleships that were about to become obsolete. The artillery on them made Li Mingqi feel the huge danger. Not to mention the ironclad ships that would appear in the future.

Population! Population! Population!

What the Xinming Empire lacks now is population. If there are enough people, it can use its own people to build forts and bunkers.

There is no need to hire foreigners to work like it is now, and sensitive buildings cannot even be thought of, let alone built.

Here at Long Beach Wharf, Li Mingqi plans to build it according to the port.

Just convincing the construction company to let the dock make room for a future shipyard gave Li Mingqi a headache for a while.

Regarding Li Mingqi's layman's suggestion, the construction company had no choice but to give up a more suitable location and change it.

This also added to Li Mingqi's head the hat of being a dictator who doesn't know how to pretend to understand.

At this time, the camp of the Xinming Empire had changed its location, from the mound not far from the construction site to the Los Angeles River, which is now five kilometers away from the construction site.

The factory area and the dock area are very close, and the Xinming Empire camp is upstream of the factory area.

A perimeter wall was built around the perimeter, and steel bars were added to the masonry concrete structure, which was half a meter thick.

Li Mingqi felt that it would not collapse after just two hits from the current twelve-pounder cannon.

Inside the wall is a two-meter-wide platform made of wooden boards that can be used for soldiers to patrol.

After the wall was repaired, the camp of the Xinming Empire was called the fortress town of the Easterners by the Western workers.

Entering the wall is a road paved with bricks, which is more than five meters wide. On both sides are simple houses converted from shipping containers, and the exteriors of the houses are simply covered with wooden boards.

Now the number of people of the Xinming Empire living here has increased to more than 2,300.

These people are all Chinese who came from all over California after hearing that there were job opportunities here in Los Angeles and that the boss was an Oriental.

The Chinese people in California during this period had a very difficult time.

According to statistics from the Sacramento Daily Union in 1855, there were approximately 36,500 Chinese on the Pacific coast, of whom about 20,000 were mining in the California mining areas.

And in order to drive away these miners, most of whom come from Guangdong Province in southern China, the California government introduced a series of targeted taxes.

For example, Chinese miners have to pay a license fee of US$4 per person per month, a water fee of 30 cents a day, and a mineral rights fee of 25 cents, which means that in taxes alone, they have to pay US$250 per year.

Therefore, after hearing about Dongfang Li's name, the Chinese miners who were almost unable to survive came to ask for food one after another.

What can Li Mingqi do about these Chinese people who have come to seek refuge with him?

Of course I had to hold back my smile!