1850 American Gold Tycoon

"Now that the cooperative education matter has been negotiated, Yale University is your alma mater, and you are more familiar with Yale's professors than we are. You will be responsible for the specific matters of California State University."

When sending Woolsey and others back to where they were staying to rest, Liang Yao said to Rong Hong. He still had high hopes for Rong Hong, the first Chinese to receive systematic higher education.

"If Woolsey really wants to be the president of California State University, I will naturally welcome it. If he just talks about it, you will be the president of California State University for the time being."

"I should be the president of California State University?" Rong Hong was flattered. "I just graduated from college not long ago. Although I worked part-time as a lecturer at New York University to make a living, I gave a few lectures. After all, I have limited knowledge and I am afraid that I will not be able to take on the responsibility." Such an important responsibility.”

"Mr. Rong Hong is being humble. You graduated from a top university in the United States. Mr. Woolsey praised you highly. I think knowledge is not your shortcoming. Your biggest shortcoming is that your resume is too thin."

Seeing that Liang Yao wanted Rong Hong to serve as the president of California State University, Pillman was a little unhappy. In his mind, he also wanted to serve as the president of California State University concurrently as the Minister of Education and the Vice Chairman of the Education Committee. Let’s get the principal’s position first.

Pillman did not deny Rong Hong's knowledge. If he wanted to compete with Rong Hong for the position of president of California State University, he would definitely not be able to compete with Rong Hong as a middle school graduate.

However, as California's Secretary of Education in its early stages, he has a huge advantage over Rong Hong in terms of qualifications. Of course, this is Pearlman's only advantage.崼

So Pillman sidestepped the question of knowledge and emphasized the importance of qualifications.

"Secretary Pillman means exactly what he said."

Rong Hong admitted this openly. Compared with these old Californians, his qualifications were indeed too young.

"I don't think so."

In this matter, Liang Yao decided to stand up for Rong Hong.

"Mr. Rong Hong assisted us on the issue of international students in California when he was still in college, and was responsible for the liaison between international students and the California Department of Education. Based on this, Mr. Rong Hong at least has a relatively low qualification in the California Department of Education. Mr. Pearlman ,Am i right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, look at my memory, I have ignored such an important thing." How dare Pillman say that Liang Yao was wrong.崼

"That's right." Liang Yao patted Pillman on the shoulder and said to Pillman sincerely.

"California's basic education can be universalized. There is no doubt about the contribution of the Department of Education and you, the Secretary of Education. You have done a good job. It is not enough for California to just universalize basic education. Neither can California's higher education." fall.

The work of the Ministry of Education is very hard, and I can understand that having Mr. Rong Hong in charge of higher education can also reduce your pressure.

You two are the pillars of California’s education system. The future of education in California is entrusted to you. "

"I see."

Pillman saw that Liang Yao had decided to hand over the responsibility of higher education to Rong Hong, and knowing that he was powerless to change Liang Yao's decision, he said nothing more.

At least Liang Yao affirmed his achievements when he was the Minister of Education, and his ministerial position is still very stable.崼

"The state government allocates a budget of US$150,000 to California State University every year. Has the Ministry of Finance agreed?"

Pillman asked about the annual financial allocation of US$150,000. Although the California state government is rich, the annual allocation of US$150,000 is not a small amount.

"What I can promise to the outside world must be certain." Liang Yao said.

Financial appropriations exceeding US$50,000 are no longer just a matter for the Ministry of Finance. They require the approval of the Ministry of Finance and the approval of the state assembly before this financial appropriation can be released.

California has already overcome the financial difficulties at the beginning of its establishment as a state. The first batch of industrial and mining companies have already paid taxes for two or three years. In addition, Los Angeles's petrochemical industry also contributes a large portion of tax revenue to the state government every year.

I can still get this little money.

"Mr. Liang, after the establishment of California State University, I want to find a job in the medical profession." Huang Kuan, who had been silent on the side, said.崼

"It's overqualified and overqualified for use." Liang Yao had no such plan. He had other plans for Huang Kuan.

"San Francisco Hospital intends to establish a professional medical school. You are a top medical student at the University of Edinburgh. You should work there when the time comes."

During the cholera prevention and control campaign in 1850, Liang Yao had already concentrated the few medical resources in California at that time and established the first hospital in California.

During the gold rush era, almost every gold rush team brought a doctor to California to hunt for gold. These gold rushers did not dare to be careless when it came to their own lives, so the doctors who came to California with the gold rush team generally had good medical skills.

The most typical representative is former Governor Robinson, whose medical skills are very superb.

Therefore, California’s medical care is not much inferior to that of eastern states. The only shortcoming is that it is far away from the European continent, and it will take more time for the latest medical technology to spread to California.

Liang Yao's Western Brigade also benefited from California's relatively abundant medical resources.崼

Medical resources are very scarce in this era.

Even under this situation, Liang Yao assigned two professional doctors to each regiment.

At the same time, other American troops could only deploy one doctor per regiment.

Medical resources are more abundant, and the Western Brigade's mortality rate can be maintained at a relatively low level both in peacetime and in wartime.

However, Liang Yao was not satisfied with this. Two doctors per regiment was still too few.

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After the Crimean War, Elvis returned to California with his military expedition.崼

He deeply regretted missing the second U.S.-Mexican War due to a military inspection in the Near East, but this trip still benefited Elvis a lot.

Seeing the confrontation between the world's top military powers and major military powers opened his eyes.

A military conflict of this scale is not comparable to that of a second-tier country like the United States and Mexico.

"It was so tragic. In the Battle of Sevastopol alone, the total number of coalition casualties was as high as 69,000, including 27,000 deaths. The Russian casualties were even more severe, estimated at at least 100,000 die."

After returning to San Francisco, Elvis reported the results of the expedition to Liang Yao.

"Filling in one or two regiments a day is nothing new. A fully-equipped regiment goes to the battlefield in the morning and is lucky to have a company back in the afternoon. This is only the situation on the French army. The Russian army only knows worse."

The most intuitive shock to Elvis from the Crimean War was its scale and casualties.崼

Although Elvis was also from the British Army and served in the British Army.

But after the Battle of Waterloo, Britain never launched a large-scale war with the power of the whole country, let alone teamed up with France, the largest army power in Europe.

"Modern warfare is like a meat grinder." Liang Yao lamented, "Even in defensive battles, such an ugly exchange ratio can be achieved. The European military police does not live up to its name."

The Crimean War has made mankind initially feel the terrifying power of war after industrialization.

The Siege of Sevastopol took place from September 1854 to September 1855 and lasted for a full year. This battle was the longest and most brutal battle during the Crimean War.

The battle ended with the capture of Sevastopol by the British and French forces.

By the time Elvis's expedition arrived in Crimea, the war had already entered its final stages.崼

Liang Yao had expected that the Russian war would turn out so ugly. Five industrial countries led a group of young men to attack an agricultural country with unknown origins. No matter from any angle, Russia had no chance of making a comeback.

Compared with the coalition forces, except for the slight advantage in the number of troops, the Russian army can be said to have an all-round advantage.

At this time, both Britain and France had already used rifled guns, while the Russian army was still using old smoothbore guns, and the gap in artillery was also the same.

The most outrageous thing is the gap between the logistics system and the medical system.

There is no need to elaborate on the logistics system. The logistics of the Russian army is not a matter of a day or two.

More than 160 years later, the Russian oligarchs do not regard Russian military mobilization as human beings. It’s a bit overwhelming to expect the Russian aristocrats of the 1850s to treat a group of serfs as human beings.

The British and French allied forces fought far away from homeland, while the Russian army fought near its own territory and had the advantage of fighting on its home field. Its logistical delivery capabilities were not as good as those of Britain and France using ships to transport personnel and materials to the Near East. This was no longer due to sparse railway lines and poor infrastructure. These seemingly objective reasons can be easily explained.崼

As for the medical gap, during the entire war, the Russian army of more than 700,000 had only more than 70 military doctors, and on average only one doctor could be assigned to 10,000 people.

Even with such a small number of doctors, priority is given to high-ranking noble officers. One can imagine how bad the medical situation of the Russian army is.

The United States, which is looked down upon by European countries, can at least equip each regiment with a military doctor who is like a barefoot doctor.

"Meat grinder, that's the right word," Elvis said.

"Although the Russian army has a large number of people, the quality of its troops cannot be complimented. The Russian army lacks professionalism from soldiers to officers. I have visited the Russian prisoners of war. They are a group of serfs armed with outdated weapons. In the later stages of the war, they even Drive the civilians of Sevastopo out of the city to fight.”

"Are there any differences between the tactics of the British and French troops?"

Liang Yao was not very interested in the situation of the Russian army. What he wanted to hear more was the situation of the coalition forces, to be precise, the situation of the British and French troops.崼

"Yes, this is my inspection report." Elvis handed his inspection report to Liang Yao.

“The British army is good at using its navy to support the French army in combat. The French officers and soldiers have high morale and fight bravely. With the Walter rifles we sold them, they can often defeat the Russian army that is several times their own size.

The coalition forces most often use the tactic of concentrated firepower when attacking. The coalition forces like to take advantage of their own gun range and sufficient ammunition to suppress the Russian defense line with firepower and cover the advancing infantry in order to break through the Russian defense line.

When defending, the coalition forces like to use trench tactics, which is to dig trenches at the front as bunkers for defense. This tactic was also learned by the Russian army later on.

But in terms of using trench tactics, the coalition forces are not as good as us. Their trenches are dug more casually and are not as particular as ours.

But these are things that happened in the later stages of the war. I have talked with officers of the British and French armies. At the beginning of the war, they still used the execution queue tactic, so the casualties were quite high. "

The so-called execution queue tactic is to line up and shoot. It can be seen from this that although backward tactics can no longer keep up with advanced new weapons, countries such as Britain and France are also working hard to improve existing infantry tactics to adapt to new weapons.崼

"What novel weapons can the British and French troops use?" Liang Yao continued to ask.

“The British army used artillery very cleverly and flexibly. During the siege of Selstopol, in order to attack the Russian fortifications, Colonel Abbott, the Royal Engineer of the British Army, invented the floating fort technology.

The basic structure of a floating turret consists of two parts: the first is the platform, which is usually a pontoon or hull that can withstand heavy artillery and crew; the second is the artillery, which is usually a large-caliber cannon or howitzer.

This kind of turret can be towed by a tugboat or driven by an independent power system.

The British artillery often used this kind of fort to be close to the coastline, shooting outside the effective range of the Russian artillery. The Russian artillery could only stare at these floating forts of the British army.

Even if sometimes the British army entered the range of the Russian artillery in order to hit the Russian defenses more accurately, these forts often only fired a few shots before moving."

"These are valuable reference materials." Liang Yao asked while listening to Elvis' story and looking through the inspection report.崼

"If one day the British army uses this kind of fort to attack our Kinmen fort, do you have a way to crack it?"

The Kinmen Fort is the fortification formed by the forts on the north and south sides of the Kinmen Strait. This strait with a width of only 6-3 kilometers from north to south is the last key to the Pacific Ocean from Jinshan Bay.

If a war breaks out with maritime powers in the future, the Golden Gate Fort will be San Francisco's last line of insurance.

Once an enemy ship breaks through the Kinmen Strait, the entire Jinshan Bay coastal area will be under fire from the enemy ship.

"Fighting the British Army? I haven't considered this issue. I always feel that fighting the British Army is a bit too far away." Elvis was stunned.

"You should not think like this. The more you think the war is far away, the closer it will be to you." Liang Yao criticized, "Don't talk about the far away, just talk about the close. The British are now relying on our Bellingham." Come on, this thing still gives me a headache."

Elvis pulled the beard on his chin and said thoughtfully: "Our fort is fixed, and the enemy's floating fort is mobile. If we use a fixed large fort to attack a small mobile fort, we will suffer."

Perhaps we can follow what the British did in Crimea and lay mines to block waterways. But the best way is to use a small gunboat. Our Loach ship has a Sacramento rapid-fire cannon. We can take advantage of the rapid fire rate of the Sacramento cannon to kill the crew members on these floating turrets. "