1850 American Gold Tycoon

Liang Yao took the wine from Vanderbilt and clinked glasses with Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt was a sailor and drank like water. Liang Yao was definitely not as good at drinking as Vanderbilt.

Liang Yao wanted to be polite, but after seeing Vanderbilt drink all the wine in the glass, Liang Yao had no choice but to drink the full glass of brandy.

"I have talked with Chinese people who are doing business in New York. Many of them are from your hometown. I heard that in China, a gentleman family like yours will get engaged to other well-matched local gentleman families when their children and grandchildren are very young. ?

Even if the child is still in the belly and the gender is not clear, a marriage contract will be entered into? Do you also have such an engagement? "

Vanderbilt said while playing with the wine glass in his hand.

"That's true. It's just that before I came to California, my family changed from a gentleman's family to a criminal family, and many of the engagements we had originally entered into were terminated." Liang Yao put the wine glass on the table and said.

"As for my engagement, my status in the family is not very important and I am not the first choice for marriage."

"So there are no more." Vanderbilt seemed a little happy, and then asked curiously, "In China, rich and powerful men can have many wives?"

"It's okay in America." Liang Yao thought for a while and said.

"China has a system of monogamy and polyconcubine. Like many congressmen, although they have families, it does not prevent them from having many lovers outside. Monogamy and polyconcubine are only enjoyed by the privileged class in China. Ordinary people can still enjoy it. The wife of a wretched man spends her entire life mediocrely, without even being seen in person, and remains a bachelor for the rest of her life."

Liang Yao is a sensible person. Vanderbilt came to him not to discuss business, but to ask questions about marriage in China. Most likely, he came to propose marriage.

"Look into my eyes!" Vanderbilt suddenly raised his voice.

The two looked at each other. Vanderbilt looked very serious. He looked directly into Liang Yao's eyes, as if he wanted to understand Liang Yao's inner thoughts: "Do you like Lisa Bai Yin?"

Liang Yao looked at Vanderbilt calmly, without any intention of avoiding it. He replied very seriously and affirmatively: "I like it, but I will not be your assistant like Clark and the others for Lisa Bai Yin's sake."

If Liang Yao hadn't made it big in California, being an assistant to Lao Fan's son-in-law like Clark would be a good choice.

It's just that he has become a leader now, and there is no need to be inferior to others and look up to others.

Vanderbilt took another full glass of wine and sighed: "How can I let a general of the American Army and the state speaker of California be my assistant?"

This was what Vanderbilt was thinking. He had indeed had the idea of ​​asking Liang Yao to be his son-in-law and assistant.

However, he also knew that Liang Yao was not like Clark. With the help of the Vanderbilt family, Clark could become one of the celebrities in New York, but Clark's upper limit was limited to this.

As for Liang Yao's upper limit, it currently seems that there are endless possibilities.

In terms of wealth, Liang Yao's current wealth may not be less than that of Vanderbilt. In terms of status, Liang Yao's current status in the United States is much higher than that of Vanderbilt.

Seeing that the brandy he had brought was all gone, Vanderbilt took a bottle of wine from the wine rack, opened it, poured the wine, and continued talking.

"Lisa Bai Yin's heart is all about you. If I give her to someone else, she will hate me forever." Vanderbilt took a sip of wine in the glass and pursed his lips.

"My unqualified father is already hated by my three daughters. I don't want my beloved little daughter to hate me anymore. This time I will be a qualified father and help you couple."

"It turns out you are self-aware." Liang Yao teased.

Vanderbilt's children, who were good at business but neglected family, did not have a harmonious relationship with Vanderbilt. When Coney first became Liang Yao's assistant, he often complained about his father in front of Liang Yao.

"Propose to Elizabeth Yin." Vanderbilt patted Liang Yao on the shoulder, "According to your customs, do whatever you want."

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Inside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia.

The emperor of this expansionist country, Nicholas I, a middle-aged man with a bald head, a fat belly and a mustache, was waiting for the British Minister Hamilton Seymour.

He was preparing to explain to the British Minister Hamilton Seymour his wishful plan for dividing the spoils and the future new order in Europe under the leadership of the two superpowers, Britain and Russia.

In 1453, after the destruction of the Eastern Roman Empire, the last princess of the empire, Sofia Paleologus, married the Grand Duke of Moscow, Yin Fan III.

Since the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Dante XI, had no heirs and Princess Sofia was the only legal heir, Muscovy began to claim that it was the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire and called itself the Third Rome.

The Third Rome also provided the Muscovy Principality and subsequent Russian rulers with a ridiculous expansion logic of expanding territory in all directions.

To their east are the Mongolian Khanates of Kazan, Astra, and Siberia. These pagans from the eastern steppes once invaded and enslaved European Christians.

Russia attacked these Mongol pagan khanates, occupied their lands, and enslaved their people in order to avenge the Christian world.

To the west of them are the Poles. Poland invaded Russia many times at the beginning of Russia's founding, changed the tsar arbitrarily, and played with the Russian government. It was not until the establishment of the great Romanov dynasty that the Russian people's nightmare ended.

Poland committed evil first, and Russia's carving up their territory and annihilating their country is a just revenge.

To their south is the Ottoman Empire now, so there is even more reason to attack the Ottoman Empire.

At the time of its rise, the Ottoman Empire not only blocked Europe's trade routes to the East, but also long-term threatened the security of Christendom in Europe. The Ottoman Empire also contained their old capital of the Roman Empire and the holy land of Christianity: Constantinople.

Most importantly, there is the Black Sea outlet that the Russian Empire coveted.

To their north are the Swedes and the Vikings. These Vikings have invaded and robbed us in history, so they naturally have reasons to attack them and occupy their territory.

In short, the expansion of the Russian Empire in any direction is reasonable and just, and is for the benefit of our Christian brothers in Europe.

Nicholas I looked at the huge map on the wall with his hands behind his back.

The map has Russia as the center of the world. Against the backdrop of the huge Russia, the surrounding countries, except for the Qing Dynasty in Asia, all look so small and small.

The huge map made Nicholas I excited. His ancestors seized land from these evil neighbors one by one, creating the Russian Empire that today has the largest territory in the world.

The Kazan Khanate, Astra Khanate, and Siberian Khanate in the east ceased to exist, and Poland in the west is now part of the Russian Empire.

As for Sweden in the north, the land beneath his feet: St. Petersburg, the first seaport that Peter the Great, the holy king of the Romanov dynasty, wrested from the Swedes.

Now, it was the turn of Nicholas I, his great talent and strategy, to bring the weak, weak and bully Aussie Empire into the territory of the south and regain the capital of the former Eastern Roman Empire.

He wanted to become the third emperor of the Russian Empire after Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, not the emperor who had the smallest territorial changes in the Russian Empire during his reign in history.

"Your Majesty."

Hamilton Seymour, the British Minister to Russia, took off his hat and bowed to Nicholas I.

"The British Empire and the Russian Empire are the most powerful countries in the world. Britain has the most powerful navy in the world, and we, Russia, have the most powerful army in the world. The order and rules of this world are made by the strong. , and the strong ones in this world are us.”

Nicholas I did not beat around the bush, but went straight to the point. He was a straight-tempered person, and he would not beat around the bush, nor would he keep a low profile and hide his ambitions.

Nicholas I's remarks made Seymour frown. Seymour's mind was organizing euphemistic and decent words to answer Nicholas I, the arrogant tsar.

After organizing his words, Seymour was about to speak when Nicholas I pulled Seymour to the map, raised the scepter in his hand, and used the scepter as a paintbrush to point out the country on the huge map on the wall.

"For half a century, the Eastern Question has been unresolved. This is a major security risk on the European continent. Now that the Ottoman Empire is weak, it is the best time to solve the Eastern Question." Nicholas I said in the tone of an arbiter.

Nicholas I's inflationary mentality came from the anti-French war half a century ago.

The French Emperor Napoleon I, who once swept across the European continent and was so arrogant that he occupied almost all of Europe and shrouded the whole of Europe under a dark cloud. The royal families of all European countries were trembling with fear. He did not fall to the Austrian Empire or Prussia. Kingdom, but collapsed in the Russian Empire.

It was the great Russian Empire that defeated the arrogant French Empire.

The empire with the most powerful army in the world was defeated by the Russian Empire, so the army of the Russian Empire was naturally the most powerful army in the world. This was the logic of Nicholas I.

Apart from the British Empire and the Russian Empire, who else is the hegemon in today's world?

The Anti-French War brought the influence of the Russian Empire in Europe to an unprecedented peak. After the war, the rulers of the Russian Empire were very concerned about the affairs of the European countries, actively participated in and intervened in the affairs of the European countries, and acted as the arbiters of Europe. , the European gendarme calls itself.

Just five years ago, Nicholas I enthusiastically sent Field Marshal Paskovich to lead 100,000 troops into Hungary to suppress the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, who had just ascended the throne and was only 18 years old. revolutionary movement within the country.

Tsarist Russia's overzealous interest in European affairs naturally aroused the alarm of Britain, which had always pursued a continental balance of power policy.

Britain would never sit idly by and let any powerful country break the balance of power on the European continent, not even France under Napoleon I, nor the Russian Empire under Nicholas I.

It is a pity that the arrogant Nicholas I did not realize this clearly. He believed that this reliable ally who had been with him in the anti-French alliance could solve the Eastern problem together, that is, the carving up of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East. , this reliable ally will also stand with the powerful Russian Empire this time.

As for the Anglo-French alliance? Nicholas I thought this was a big joke. How could these two feuding enemies cooperate?

Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, has just ascended the throne in France this year and proclaimed himself emperor. Has the British always forgotten the fear brought to them by Napoleon I's First French Empire? Want to face a French Second Empire that is as powerful and as full of martial virtue as the First French Empire?

The British will definitely cooperate with powerful Russia. This is what Nicholas I thinks now.