1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 526 New Dezhou, new atmosphere

In recent years, Texas has benefited from maintaining close economic ties with California, and its life has been relatively prosperous.

While other southern states were still worried about the backlog of cotton.

Texas cotton has already been wiped out by textile mills in California and Oregon.

What makes other southern states even more jealous is that the main sales market for Texas cotton is domestic. Texas planters do not have to worry too much about the current very sensitive tariff issue.

The last time Liang Yao came to Dezhou was 6 years ago. Compared with 6 years ago, Dezhou has changed a lot.

The most intuitive change is that the villages and towns passed along the way are obviously more densely populated than 6 years ago.

In 1851, Texas was a frontier state with a population of only about 100,000. By 1857, the population of Texas had exceeded 350,000.

At the beginning of the establishment of the state, the two states had a friendship of sharing adversity. The top leaders of the two states also tried their best to maintain this precious friendship.

Therefore, Texas has become the first choice state for many Chinese immigrants to the east. Texas is the state with the largest Chinese population among the eastern states, except New York. More than 35,000 Chinese have chosen to settle in Texas.

Texas is a frontier area with unchanging wild nature and rugged folk customs.

There are many disadvantages to choosing to live in border areas, namely sparsely populated border areas, imperfect infrastructure, inconvenient living, and few recreational activities.

A group of young and old go into the mountains to hunt, fish, and drink a few sips of wine around a campfire. This may be the most memorable entertainment activity for most Texans throughout the year.

But in the bustling state of New York, there are more colorful entertainment options to choose from. While people in Texas have fallen asleep, New York's nightlife has just begun.

The last time he came to Dezhou, Liang Yao only saw a few sporadic cotton gins, cane sugar manufacturing plants, and cigarette factories near the city. These small factories focused on the primary processing of agricultural products.

This time, Liang Yao saw no less than dozens of furniture factories, gypsum factories, machinery manufacturing factories, textile factories, and steel factories along the railway line. It can be seen that the economic structure of Texas is different from the traditional southern slave states.

The current governor of Texas, Ron, and the state speaker, Espy, were also old acquaintances of Liang Yao. As soon as the train arrived at the station, Liang Yao caught a glimpse of Ron and Espy, who had been waiting on the platform for a long time.

The terrain of Texas is transparent from north to south, and there are no large mountains running east to west to block the cold current from the north. Therefore, although the latitude of Texas is very low, the winter in Texas is as cold as in northern states.

As soon as he got out of the car, Liang Yao was hit by a cold wind. Liang Yao reached out and took the leather jacket from Carnegie and put it on.

"Texas has changed so much. If I hadn't known about it in advance, I would have thought I was still in Virginia."

Liang Yao's attitude towards these two old friends from the Brotherhood was very friendly. He shook hands with Ron and Espy cordially.

"It's a small thought, I hope you two don't dislike it."

After hearing this, Carnegie directed his entourage to get the gift.

Ron and Espy did not refuse these gifts and motioned to the personal black servant to accept them.

"Your gifts have always been very valuable and unique, and now I'm already worried about what I should give you in return." Ron was a little embarrassed.

Many high-level officials in the two states are close friends, with frequent contacts and gifts to each other. It’s just that there aren’t many gifts that Texas can offer.

Although Ron is the governor of a state and a local wealthy family, he still retains the simple side of a countryman in his heart.

"Our two states are brotherly states. The early opening of the Garda-Germany Railway and taking care of Californians who have immigrated to Texas are the best gift you can give me in return and a testimony of the friendship between our two states." Liang Yao said, and now the material gift is at It doesn't make much sense to him anymore.

"The friendship between the two states is everlasting."

Ron happily high-fived Liang Yao.

Californians have contributed greatly to the development of Texas. Without the investment provided by Californians and without Californians coming to Texas to open shops, the living standards of Texans would be set back seven years.

Back in the days when a hammer cost 50 cents, a gallon of oil cost 85 cents, a bar of soap cost 20 cents, and you had to ride a horse for half a day or even a day, you might not be able to buy these basic daily necessities.

"Your Excellency said in the telegram that you want to visit the Austin Arsenal. We will take you there right now."

Espy had prepared the carriage.

The Austin Arsenal is located on the banks of the Colorado River in the northwest suburbs of Austin. The Austin Arsenal is heavily guarded. There is a militia company dedicated to security around the arsenal.

The attire of the Texas militia is the same as the Texas militia that Liang Yao saw during the Second Mexican-American War. The clothing is relatively casual and there is no very uniform uniform.

Although there was no uniformity in uniforms, the weapons of these Texas militiamen were unified before the uniforms.

These militiamen are all equipped with Walter M1851 rifles. The old Springfield M1842 series rifles have long been eliminated by the Texas army.

"I think Texas still needs a quilt factory."

In the carriage, Liang Yao looked at the Texas militiamen in different uniforms along the way and teased.

"Texas is not as wealthy as California, and even the militiamen are willing to issue uniforms," ​​Ron said.

“Texas has limited funds and resources, and every penny must be spent wisely.”

"Really?" Liang Yao smiled.

"As long as the friendship between our two states continues, Texas will soon be as wealthy as California.

Oil has been discovered in Odessa and Houston, and as long as Los Angeles has the technical personnel and equipment in place, these oil fields can be worth more than gold mines. "

Liang Yao has been sending exploration teams to explore oil fields in Texas since 1853.

In the past four years, the exploration team has not found any oil fields with production value. To be precise, oil fields with commercial production value using existing technology.

Just when Liang Yao was about to lose his patience, the exploration team finally discovered oil with commercial extraction value in the village of Odessa in West Texas and the East Texas Basin near Houston.

If everything goes well, petrochemical products from Texas will be able to enter the market in batches before June this year.

"Hey, some situations in Texas worry me. There are always some restless people in the state, especially young people. They don't cherish the days in front of them, and they clamor to kill the Yankees all day long. All they think about all day long is Fighting. Many young people from Texas and Louisiana established a youth military police organization." Ron said with a worried face.

The butt determines the head. Ron is no longer a simple slave owner. The plantation is no longer his only source of income. His hatred for the northern states is not as deep as it was six or seven years ago.

Sometimes he even felt that maybe the path taken by the Yankees was the right one.

Is slavery really, as Calhoun and other Southern debaters said, a good institution and the foundation and guarantee of the Southern social way of life?

Maybe the second half of the sentence was right, but Ron now disagreed with the first half.

"Nathan joined the Young Military Police?"

Liang Yao guessed that he remembered that both Ron and Espy had a troubled son.

Although the violent machines of the North and the South have not shown their faces yet, the civil war between the slaveholding faction and the abolitionist faction has already begun.

In recent years, there have been an endless stream of civil extremist groups established by both the North and the South. The more famous civil groups in the South include the Association for the Promotion of Slavery, the Slave Owners Association, and the Southern Conservative Association. You can tell what these organizations do just by hearing their names.

Liang Yao had also heard of the Youth Gendarmerie organization. The northern civil society group that was in tit-for-tat opposition to the organization was the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was not a real railway system, but an underground escape network composed of abolition activists and abolition volunteers. , designed to help southern black fugitive slaves escape to northern free states or Canada.

The main purpose of the young military police members was to disrupt the operations of the Underground Railroad, hunt down escaped black slaves, and hunt down and secretly execute northern saboteurs.

These civil organizations, although they are said to be civil organizations, actually have politicians behind them to support them and funders to provide them with funds for their activities.

"It would be great if this boy Nathan could be one-tenth as stable and mature as you."

Ron sighed. He understood that his son was a person without much thinking ability, and he did not want his son to stay in an organization like the Youth Military Police for a long time.

It would do Nathan no good to get caught up in this political whirlpool.

"Young people are easily influenced by others and the environment," Liang Yao said.

"Sir, I have a heartfelt request." Ron made a request.

"I want to send the dog to your army for training, even if he is to be a top soldier."

Poor parents in the world, Liang Yao knew Ron's intentions. Ron hoped that Nathan could stay away from the young military police and stay away from the south, a place of right and wrong.

"The military discipline of the Western Brigade is very strict. You only have a son. Are you willing to send him to serve on the west coast thousands of miles away?" Liang Yao sighed softly.

"Even if you have this intention, Nathan probably won't appreciate it."

The soldiers in the Texas area all have very good personal qualities, but after all, they are all children of farmers. They are used to living a careless life and need to spend more time to tame them.

"He doesn't appreciate it. Even if I kidnap him, I will kidnap him to California." Ron said angrily.

"Counting that bastard of mine!" Espy said.

While talking, Liang Yao and his party arrived at the gate of Austin Arsenal.

Under Espy's order, the militiamen guarding the gate opened the heavy gate for Liang Yao.

The door was open, and bursts of noise came from the wind. The noise was intertwined with the roar of steam and the collision of mechanical metal.

The buildings of the arsenal are scattered in an orderly manner, and the chimneys on the roofs emit thick, choking smoke.

"The Austin Arsenal is a large building complex with 4 firearms manufacturing plants, 2 artillery manufacturing plants, 2 ammunition workshops and several warehouses."

While Ron led Liang Yao through the stockpiling area where iron ingots, steel ingots, brass plates, lead blocks, wood and other raw materials were stacked, he introduced the situation of the arsenal.

"After expansion, the Austin Arsenal has now become the second largest arsenal in the South, with a daily production capacity of 90-100 Walter M1851 rifles. The rifles we produce sell well."

With the maturity of production technology, the price of Walter M1851 rifle has now dropped to a level that some troops can accept.

Espy brought a new gun that had just been assembled to Liang Yao for inspection. Liang Yao took it and looked at it briefly.

The bottom of the butt of this new gun has been stamped with a number starting with A. A represents the factory in the Austin Arsenal. The remaining numbers use the same coding method as the Sacramento Arsenal: production period + production workshop + assembler + quality inspector + Factory order on the same day.

In addition to the number on the butt, each component has a separate number, and the source of the part can be traced based on the number.

For example, if the number on the bolt starts with S, it means that the gun's bolt is produced by the Sacramento Arsenal, not the Austin Arsenal.

The Austin Arsenal does not yet have the ability to independently produce bolts, so it can only import them from the Sacramento Arsenal.

Liang Yao habitually glanced at the right side of the receiver. There was an acceptance stamp on the right side of the receiver, indicating that the gun had passed the inspection and was a safe rifle to use.

The Walter rifle was the rifle Liang Yao was most familiar with. He found that there was a big gap in quality between the Walter rifles produced in Austin and those produced in Sacramento.

No wonder the price of each one varies by about $3. It feels like a compromise has been made on quality.

After visiting the firearms manufacturing plant, Liang Yao came to the artillery manufacturing plant.

The temperature of the artillery factory was much higher than that of the firearms factory. It was so hot that Liang Yao took off his coat.

In the factory, gunsmiths wearing oil-stained work clothes stood in front of the casting furnace, smelting metal.

The molten iron splashing up from the furnace was like brilliant fireworks piercing the night sky in the dim factory.

Going deeper, I saw two craftsmen carefully grinding the surface of a new cannon. Their skills were very skillful, and it was obvious that they were both experienced cannon makers.

The Austin Arsenal still produced front-loading rifled guns. Because the Sacramento guns were too advanced to be exported, Liang Yao did not authorize the Austin Arsenal to produce the more advanced Sacramento guns.

Of course, this is only one of the reasons. The more important reason is that the production process of the Sacramento gun is complex, the manufacturing time is extremely long and the cost is high, which is not suitable for the troops of the southern states.

"Currently, this factory can produce 5 to 7 guns per month. The other factory does not produce artillery and is mainly responsible for the business of drilling rifling for smoothbore guns." Ron introduced.

The Austin Arsenal is a comprehensive arsenal that can produce 5 to 7 artillery pieces per month during peacetime. The output is already very high.

In April 1861, when the Confederacy was announced, the Confederate Army had only raised more than 600 artillery pieces through various channels.

At the same time, the Northern Federal Army had about 1,000 to 1,200 artillery pieces.

However, by the time the war officially broke out the next year, the gap in artillery between the two sides widened to a point that was unbelievable to the other army.

In one year, the Confederate Army's artillery increased by only more than 100 pieces.

The number of artillery pieces owned by the Federal Army reached a terrifying number of more than 2,300.

Finally, Liang Yao asked Ron about the production of ammunition and learned that about 2,000 bullets could be produced every day.

Liang Yao originally did not have high expectations for the Austin Arsenal, but he was already satisfied with the output achieved in 1857.

His basic requirement for the Austin Arsenal is to be able to supply local troops in Texas. Obviously, the Austin Arsenal has exceeded his expectations.