1850 American Gold Tycoon

The warm sunshine in winter shines on the broad grassland beside Utah Lake. Provo, the confluence point of the Pacific Railway, is located on this beautiful grassland in the United States.

Thanks to the construction of the Pacific Railway, many businessmen and immigrants with keen sense of smell, as well as some railway workers, have chosen to settle in Provo City in advance.

At the beginning of 1856, Provo had only about 1,200 settled residents. Just one year later, Provo's settled population exceeded 3,500, making it the largest city in Utah.

The previous crown as the largest city in Utah belonged to Brigham City, which has a settled population of more than 2,000. This is due to the fact that Brigham City is one of the holy places for Mormons.

Brigham Young, one of the pioneers of Mormonism and the second bishop, settled here for a long time to preach, and the city was named after him.

Brigham Young also has a translation name that is more familiar to Chinese people, and that is Brigham Young. He is the current bishop of the Mormon Church.

Mormonism is very influential in the Utah area and has become a label for the Utah area.

Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is an alternative Christian sect that was founded in the United States in the 1820s.

The process of its founding was also very outrageous. Joseph Smith claimed that he encountered a vision in a dream and was inspired by God. God gave him a golden leaf book with the "Book of Mormon" engraved on it. Joseph told everyone that this was a historical and doctrinal record of the ancient Americans and a lost part of the Bible. And used this to confuse a group of believers.

Logically speaking, this is not a big deal. After all, the 19th century was an era when civilization and ignorance, technology and superstition coexisted.

But Mormonism does not take the usual path. Mormonism is very different from mainstream Christianity.

The most important reason why the Mormon Church is not tolerated by mainstream society and everywhere is that the organization and social structure of Mormonism are obviously different from other Christian denominations.

Mormonism has a clear concept of “leader”, and this leader is a concrete and living person.

Leaders are considered to be guided by God and are messengers sent by God to the world to preach and guide the lost. This is quite similar to the God-worshiping meeting on the other side.

As a result, Mormons were rejected by the mainstream secular society in the east and were persecuted and expelled by the authorities.

Mormon leaders from various places led believers to launch the "Mormon March" movement to establish settlements in the western interior. Utah was the core area of ​​their activities.

In 1857, the total population of Utah exceeded 60,000, which was already considered a very populous area in the western frontier of the United States. Not to mention barely touching the threshold of statehood, there are seven large settlements with a population of more than 1,000 people (Provo, Salt Lake City, Brigham, Ogden, Logan, St. George, and Titica).

More than half of these 60,000 Utahns are Mormon believers.

This is why the population of Utah has reached the threshold for statehood, but the federal government has not planned to establish a state in Utah. It can be seen that the federal government authorities are still wary of the Mormons.

However, in order to maintain control of the Utah region, the federal government appointed Brigham Young, the second leader of the Mormon Church, as the governor of the Utah region, and granted Brigham Young the military rank of colonel, responsible for the government and military affairs of the Utah region.

Brigham Young has become the local emperor of Utah, enjoying the tributes from believers, having more than 30 wives, and living a much more comfortable life than the president.

"You must be the most distinguished guest in Provo today, Mr. Liang Yao. The Governor of Utah Territory, Brigham Young, welcomes you on behalf of the Mormons."

A man with weak steps, a thin face, and sunken eye sockets, pretending to be mysterious, came to Liang Yao. Behind him were dozens of young men with guns on their backs and blazing eyes.

This person was not here to greet Liang Yao. He was clearly here to show off his power and declare the sovereignty of the Utah area to Liang Yao.

"Are you Brigham Young?" Liang Yao glanced at Brigham Young disdainfully.

"Exactly." Brigham Young replied angrily.

"Kruger! Military discipline!" Liang Yao said to Kruger.

Brigham Young's behavior also made Kruger feel very uncomfortable. Kruger couldn't help but go up and give Brigham Young two loud slaps on the ear.

Seeing Brigham Young being beaten, the dozens of armed believers behind Brigham Young removed their spears from their shoulders.

Pinkerton, who was in charge of the security work, had already prepared. Just for a moment, the California Bureau of Investigation agents had already taken out the Colt revolvers from their waistbands and pressed them against the heads of these armed believers.

"Why did you hit me?" Brigham Young covered his stinging cheek.

"Hitting you? Hitting you is still light. Brigham Young! Tell me your identity!" Liang Yao shouted in a deep voice.

"Governor of Utah"

Seeing that his believer had been shot, Brigham Young could only suppress the anger in his heart and replied aggrievedly.

"Kruger!" Liang Yao called Kruger's name.

Kruger understood and went up with two more big ear scrapers.

"Colonel Utah Territory."

This time Brigham Young finally answered correctly.

"What about my identity?" Liang Yao asked in an intriguing tone.

"Aren't you Brigadier General, Commander-in-Chief of the Western Region?" Brigham Young secretly looked at the change of expression on Liang Yao's face and asked anxiously.

"Sir, did I answer the right question this time?"

"Correct answer!" Liang Yao nodded, and then shouted again.

"Kruger!"

As expected, Brigham Young received two more scratches on his left and right cheeks.

"Your Excellency, General! Why did you hit me when I answered correctly?!" Brigham Young asked with a cry in his voice, hurt by the beating.

"Since you know that I am a brigadier general and your immediate superior, why don't you salute me when you see me?!" Liang Yao scolded sternly.

"gram"

"No need to bother, I'll do it myself."

This time, before Kruger's name could be called out, Brigham Young wisely slapped himself twice. Immediately, he endured the pain and gave Liang Yao a feeble and non-standard military salute.

Since the opening ceremony was about to begin, Liang Yao was too lazy to waste time arguing with Brigham Young. There would be plenty of opportunities to train this boy in the military and let him know who was the God of the West.

At the venue where the opening ceremony was held, flags of various colors fluttered in the wind.

Provo, a small city with a settled population of only 3,500 people, gathered tens of thousands of people on this day.

The people who came to attend the opening ceremony covered all walks of life. In addition to the invited domestic and foreign media, dignitaries and celebrities from the east and west, railway company executives, engineers, workers and even local ordinary people participated in the celebration.

The sound of firecrackers sounded, and people's emotions gradually rose with the crackling sound of firecrackers, and thunderous cheers and applause sounded.

Amid the enthusiastic cheers and applause of the people, Liang Yao, Vanderbilt, Lincoln, and Fillmore stepped onto the wooden stage one after another and delivered inspiring speeches amidst harsh applause and dazzling flashlights.

On a special wooden platform, a nail with dazzling golden light in the sun is quietly waiting for its historical mission. It will become a witness to the completion of the connection between the east and west sections of the Pacific Railway.

According to tradition, after the railway is completed, the last spike needs to be laid to declare the project successfully completed.

This last nail is usually struck by the sensible president of the oil and railway company or the invited VIP.

Under the spotlight, Liang Yao removed the last spike, known as the golden nail, from the wooden platform.

They are said to be golden nails, but they are actually steel spikes with a layer of gold coating on the surface.

Liang Yao showed the golden spikes to everyone, walked to the railway track with steady steps, and solemnly placed the spikes on the rails.

The presidents of the New York Central Railroad and the Atlantic Railroad came up holding silver hammers specially prepared for the ceremony, which were, of course, silver-plated.

The two presidents handed the silver hammer to their respective chairman.

"Mr. Lincoln, please drive the last spike into the railroad track."

Liang Yao has been in the limelight enough today. He plans to leave the last ceremony to Lincoln and sell him a favor.

The Republican Party has now emerged as the largest opposition party. What Lincoln needs most at this time is exposure in front of the people.

"This is not good." Lincoln declined. "It would be more appropriate for you to complete this ceremony yourself, or it would be more appropriate for Mr. Fillmore to complete this ceremony. No merit, no reward, and I have nothing to do with the construction of this railroad. contribute."

Smashing the last spike is the last and most important part of the railway opening ceremony.

The picture of Lincoln smashing the final spike will probably appear on the front pages of every major newspaper tomorrow.

"Mr. Lincoln, then you and Mr. Fillmore will smash it together." Vanderbilt quickly handed the silver hammer in Fillmore's hand and said.

"I have participated in countless railway opening ceremonies and I feel bored by this ceremony."

Upon seeing this, Lincoln thanked Liang Yao, and in front of hundreds of cameras, he picked up the hammer and smashed the last golden spike into the railroad track.

The crisp knocking sound echoed in the air.

"This big gentleman is so powerful!"

"If he wasn't wearing a black dress, I would believe him if you told me he was a railway worker!"

"Look at how beautiful this hammer is swinging!"

Both Lincoln and Fillmore were born into the poor, and both had done farm work since childhood. Lincoln, in particular, often helped the fellow villagers chop firewood in order to get closer to them when he gave speeches in the countryside.

Smashing road spikes with a hammer is certainly not a problem for them.

After successfully smashing the spike into the railroad track, Lincoln excitedly put his left hand on Liang Yao's shoulder and held up the silver hammer with his right hand for a group photo.