1850 American Gold Tycoon

In the evening, Liang Yao invited Fremont to attend his family dinner at his small house in Sacramento. Tung

He also only invited Fremont, which was his highest level of reception for Fremont.

Fremont was his most like-minded person after arriving in California. The two had known each other during the gold rush days.

Then we went through the most difficult years when California was a state, until California became what it is today.

Sometimes Liang Yao wonders, what would have happened if he had lost the battle with Colonel Mason?

Is California reduced to the back garden of the Eastern Consortium? Do the Chinese continue to live at the bottom of the contempt chain in American society? When easterners mention Californians, their first impression is not of rich men, but of dirty gold diggers and prostitutes?

"It's been a long time since I've practiced fencing. Why don't you come to fencing?" Fremont suggested after having a good meal.

"Fencing? You just finished eating. It is not appropriate to exercise when you are full." Tong

Liang Yao shook his head and found an excuse to excuse himself.

Fremont is a well-known swordsman, a ruthless man who escaped seven duels unscathed. In a sword duel with Fremont, Liang Yao has only won once so far, and he won by sneak attack.

If you compete with Fremont, you will only be tortured by him.

It is more appropriate to practice swordsmanship with an opponent of equal strength.

"You only invited me to dinner today, not even Sartre and Ge Wen. You must be asking for something from me. If you don't practice sword practice with me, I will leave now." After saying that, Freemont pointed at Liang Yao. The sword at the waist.

"I heard that your sword was given to you by Napoleon III. If I win, your sword will be mine."

"If you want my sword, just tell me and I'll give it to you directly. I'm still willing to give up a mere sword." Liang Yao said with a smile. Tung

Liang Yao had no habit of collecting weapons. He had two swords presented to him by the head of state.

One was a sword presented to Colonel Mason by President Polk. After Colonel Mason was captured, the sword became Liang Yao's trophy. Later, when they went to Texas, Zoe liked the sword, so Liang Yao gave it to Zoe.

As for the second sword presented by the head of state, the one currently worn on his waist was a gift from Napoleon III.

"There is an allusion in China that a hungry person will not eat the food he comes for. I, a swordsman, cannot accept your charity for no reason." Freemont said.

"A swordsman loves his sword, and he must use it wisely."

"I'm good at Sinology, so I'll reluctantly give it a try with you." Liang Yao saw that Freemont was determined to get the sword, and knew he couldn't refuse, so he asked someone to bring him the protective gear.

Zoe was very excited when she heard about the sword competition. She quickly came up and said, "Mr. Fremont, when I was in Texas, you were a well-known swordsman. I want to compete with you." Tong Tong

"Why are you joining in the fun between us two gentlemen?"

The swords were ruthless, and Liang Yao was worried that Zoe would be hurt by the sword fight.

Fremont is a rather stubborn person. When he first learned to sword, Fremont and him never let go of each other once while practicing swordsmanship.

"Don't underestimate Miss Zoe, maybe Miss Zoe's swordsmanship is better than yours." Freemont said with a smile.

The American South is a martial arts country, and Southern women like Zoe, who are not typical ladies, are somewhat proficient in swords and guns.

Before Liang Yao could nod, Zoe had already taken the protective gear from the servant and quickly put it on.

Seeing this scene, Liang Yao could only take off the sword from Zoe's waist and gave her a wooden sword: "Use a wooden sword!" Tong

Fremont also quickly put on protective gear and walked to the yard. He said to Zoe: "Miss Zoe, for the sake of fairness, we will play ten rounds. As long as you win one round, I will lose."

"Your Excellency Fremont, it is my honor to compete with you." Zoe nodded to Fremont, and then started a duel with Fremont.

Liang Yao, Bell and others were watching the battle.

The outcome was obvious, with Fremont beating Zoe seven times in a row.

Only in the eighth game, Zoe almost defeated the somewhat careless Fremont.

It seems

What Freemont said was true. Zoe's swordsmanship may not be worse than that of Liang Yao, a rookie swordsman.

After the competition, Zoe took off her protective gear, then took her sword and handed it to Fremont: "Your Excellency Fremont, I lost." Tong

Fremont glanced at the inscription of President Polk on the scabbard, smiled, and said: "I also have the sword given by President Polk. Miss Zoe, you can keep this sword for yourself."

Fremont was a major hero during the First Mexican-American War and received an award and a sword from President Polk.

"He wanted the sword given by the Emperor of France." Liang Yao was willing to admit defeat and took off his sword and gave it to Fremont.

Fremont pulled out his sword, admired the sword carefully under the kerosene lamp, and praised: "After all, it is a sword gifted by the Emperor of France. What a good sword, what a good sword."

"Let's go to the pavilion and drink tea while admiring your sword." Liang Yao pointed to the pavilion a dozen steps away and said.

The two came to the pavilion, and Liang Yao personally made tea for Fremont.

After making the tea, Liang Yao poured tea for Fremont and said, "I came to you today mainly for local tax matters." Tong

"Land tax?" Freemont took the tea from Liang Yao's hand and took a sip gently.

"Yes, local tax. The Ministry of Agriculture wants to carry out agricultural reforms and cancel the land quota for immigrants, thereby stimulating food production." Liang Yao nodded.

"This is a good thing." Fremont put down the tea cup and said after thinking for a moment.

"Are you worried that this bill won't pass the state House?"

"Exactly." Liang Yao said frankly, "California's founding fathers held a large amount of land. The key is that these lands do not need to pay taxes, and the land holding cost is very low."

"You are the person who holds the most land in California," Fremont said. "You are the person who has the most to lose if this bill passes."

"But for the sake of California's future, it doesn't matter if I lose a little bit of personal profit. All my money is earned in California. Without California, I wouldn't be where I am today. I don't want California to be destroyed in my hands." Liang Yao said. Tung

Taxation is the foundation of a country. A large number of vested interests hold large amounts of land at very low costs. In the long run, this will be a disaster for California. He can't take the lead.

Taxation is the foundation of California, and California is the foundation of Liang Yao. Without California, he might not be nothing, but he would never have the status and influence he has today.

"Since you understand your righteousness so well, I am willing to support you. I have several mines in the Colima area, and I also have some shares in Los Angeles Petroleum Company and Umbrella Company. I can also afford to pay the land tax." Limont expressed his position.

"California is my home, too. I was the first American to arrive in California."

The investment methods of the upper class in California are relatively diversified, and land is not their only means of production. This also provides the possibility for the Ministry of Agriculture’s reform bill to be passed.

If it is an agricultural country, especially a feudal agricultural country, such top-down reforms have no chance of success.

"I will do the work for the Chinese, and you will do the work for other ethnic groups. Your workload will be greater. You need to convince Sartre and Ge Wen. As long as Sartre and Ge Wen nod, this matter will be done. It can basically be done." Liang Yao continued. Tung

"Gervin is easy to say. Gwen is not a very independent person and is easier to persuade. What Gwen is most interested in is not the land, but the steel plant. As for Sartre, he is obsessed with land, but I will try to convince him. Yes." Fremont agreed.

After speaking, Fremont took out a telegram and handed it to Liang Yao.

"This is the telegram from Washington this afternoon."

Liang Yao carefully read the translated telegram under the kerosene lamp.

This telegram contains a lot of information.

First, Congress has passed a bill to establish statehood in the Oregon region, allowing Southern Oregon to establish statehood.

Southern Oregon was roughly the same size as later Oregon. It did not include what would become Washington State (which was now known as the Northern Oregon Territory). Tung

The second is to allow Baja California, Baja California Sur, and the state of Sonora to be directly incorporated into California and become part of California.

The remaining area was established as the Governor's Territory of Western Mexico and enjoyed the treatment of the American Territory.

President Fillmore hoped that California could recommend to them a candidate for the governor of the Western Mexico Territory for the federal government to choose.

This played right into Liang Yao's plan.

Liang Yao said excitedly: "In this way, California will become the largest state in the United States, and the Gulf of California will also become California's inland sea."

Although the three places directly assigned to California, Baja California and Baja California Sur, are barren, the Sonora region has rich reserves of high-quality hematite, copper mines, coal mines, gold, silver, zinc and other mineral deposits.

As a result, California contained all the mineral deposits needed for the second industrial revolution. Tung

This is the only place where scorpions poop in the United States, which has a vast land and abundant resources.

More importantly, these three areas are not the core territory of Mexico. They are very sparsely populated, with a combined population of less than 300,000. They are all local candidates, the level of development is relatively low, and the impact of Mexican culture on the local area is relatively small.

Small size and no strong culture means that it is easy to assimilate and the cost of core creation is relatively low.

“The fact that Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco, and Colima are not directly included in the administrative divisions of California shows that the federal government still does not want California to become too large. The South Plans have been made to establish a state on the newly occupied Mexican land." Fremont felt that there was something wrong with it.

"Even if these places are allocated directly to us, we won't be able to eat them." Liang Yao didn't feel this way, he said.

"These places are the core territory of Mexico, but they have a total population of more than two million. We in California are only over one million now. It may not be a good thing to rashly include these places directly into our administrative divisions, and we cannot afford the high cost. The cost of governance is to effectively govern these areas.”

If California had a total population of seven to eight million, Liang Yao would of course choose to eat these areas directly. The reality is that California does not even have a population of two million. Tung

Politicians in Washington still have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. At the moment, imposing restraint on these areas and letting Mexicans manage Mexicans is indeed the wisest and most cost-effective option.

As for the South establishing states in their Mexican-occupied territories, it was because the South was anxious to compete for seats in the House and Senate of Congress.

If the South cannot handle its relations with these new Mexican states in the future, these places will sooner or later become landmines that the South does not know when to detonate.

"It makes sense." Fremont nodded, and then asked, "Governor of the Western Mexico Territory, do you have a suitable candidate to recommend?"

Although the federal government asked California to recommend the governor of the Western Mexico Territory, the federal government did not know the situation in the Western Mexico Territory as well as they did.

It is said to be a recommendation, but in fact, whoever is nominated in the California newspaper will basically be the governor.

"Pedro Torres, the former governor of Colima, Mexico." Liang Yao already had a suitable candidate in mind. Tung

"Pedro has a relatively close relationship with us, and his prestige among Mexicans is relatively high. With us supporting him, he can barely suppress the local Mexican powerhouses."

During the Second U.S.-Mexico War, when Liang Yao launched the Western Front Offensive in western Mexico, he ignored the requests for help from friendly forces and chose neutrality, indicating that he would still take sides.

Colima also changed its flag under his leadership and became the first Mexican state to actively declare its membership in the United States.

The most important point is that Torres joined the Coal and Steel Alliance four years ago and was the first batch of Mexican mine owners to join the Coal and Steel Alliance.

His own economic interests have long been deeply tied to California's.

This is also the reason why Colima State chose neutrality when the war was stalemate, and then chose to brave the disapproval of the world and openly change its flag when the situation became clear.

The interest ties between Colima and California are too deep. Tung