1850 American Gold Tycoon

"Mr. Liang, let's go to the bow of the boat and smoke for a while."

Out of his appreciation for Liang Yao, or his love for talent, Vanderbilt decided to remind this young man who knew nothing about the world.

The two walked to the bow, and Vanderbilt habitually escaped from his coat pocket with a somewhat crumpled cigar.

He did not like to carry his cigars in elaborate boxes, preferring to keep them in his pockets and only put two or three cigars at a time. Because this way you don’t have to share your cigarettes with others.

"You made the right choice to buy land. It can make you a big windfall, but you bought too much. Do you know what kind of people your future buyers are?"

Vanderbilt said to Liang Yao in the tone of someone who has experienced it.

Being ambitious is a good thing, but not knowing how to curb your ambition is a very bad thing.

Vanderbilt himself suffered such a loss when he was young.

If Liang Yao only buys a small part of the land in the Sacramento gold mining area, maybe the big plutocrats in the east will let him live and reluctantly spend money to buy some gold-rich land.

If we talk about all the land in the gold mining area, these big eastern chaebols who are accustomed to sucking blood will never take out their pockets and buy the land from Liang Yao with real money.

"I know that they are more powerful and ruthless people than you." Liang Yao's eyes were very firm, "As long as they come, there will be no more miracles in California. Private gold diggers and small gold mining companies will become rich overnight. 's history will forever be history."

"Money sometimes cannot buy upper class status. I am only ruthless to my competitors. I only seek wealth."

Vanderbilt's position in New York was very embarrassing, and his wealth did not bring him a commensurate social status.

Even the tickets to the New York elite and celebrity banquet were obtained by him after a lot of effort.

He still remembered the first time he attended a banquet. He was dressed very formally, wearing a custom-made tuxedo, holding a civilized staff, and even learned aristocratic etiquette in order to better blend in with them.

But his efforts were not respected by the celebrities. The upper-class people looked down on him as a country bumpkin and shamelessly insulted him as a rude farmer and a despicable sailor.

After that, Vanderbilt completely figured out that the purpose of attending the banquet was to stir up trouble, make trouble at the banquet like an immature child, vent his grievances, and create trouble for those New York elites who claimed to be aristocrats.

He gave up the idea of ​​integrating into New York's celebrity circles and instead focused on making money with his like-minded friends.

He also made friends with some members of Congress, but they were all humble members.

Vanderbilt would not truly achieve status commensurate with his wealth until after the Civil War.

After the Civil War, Congress awarded him the Gold Medal for his support of the Union during the Civil War.

But he also paid a heavy price for this. The biggest price was that he sent his favorite George Washington Vanderbilt to the battlefield during the Civil War, and George Washington Vanderbilt was never able to return.

This caused him to suffer and blame himself for the rest of his life.

"I must do this for the sake of my fellow sufferers and for myself, so that I can gain a foothold in America.

If I don't, do you know what awaits those gold diggers and my countrymen? Get a living job at one of the big gold mining companies and work 90 hours a week or more for a meager income. By then we will never be able to get ahead!

Of course, I also thought about what consequences this would bring to me. "

Liang Yao's tone was very firm, and he would never give up the wealth he already held in his hands.

Although he was a human being in the last life, he had to compromise with reality in order to survive and became a cow and horse for the capitalists. But in this life, he never wants to be a cow and horse again!

Nor did he want his fellow citizens to arrive in California with their hopes and ideals only to be transported by boat from one hell to another.

"What do you think is the worst possible outcome?" Vanderbilt asked.

"Congress does not recognize the legality of my ownership of the land in Sacramento and will put the land that belongs to me up for public bidding, and those greedy tycoons will bid to obtain these lands rich in gold at negligible prices."

This is the worst result Liang Yao can think of.

"It seems that you know them very well. If it comes to this, what are you going to do?"

Vanderbilt was very surprised by Liang Yao's answer. This was indeed the worst result, even to the point of being somewhat unconstitutional.

But he believes that for the sake of gold, it is possible for those big chaebols to put pressure on Congress to do such a thing.

When he was involved in lawsuits in his early years, he had personally experienced their methods, and he knew the faces of those people very well.

"I will destroy California with my own hands!" Liang Yao said loudly, "California not only has gold in Sacramento, but if they insist on focusing only on Sacramento and kill me, I will take up arms to defend my property and dignity.

They can't get what I can't get easily. I can make California run in order, or I can make California fall into chaos and make California a purgatory on earth. If they want gold, they can go to purgatory. Come and get it! "

Liang Yao was not being alarmist. He had been secretly hoarding arms for a long time. In addition to working hard to train the 150-man legion into professional soldiers, the 680 members of the Loyalty Association were also taking turns training as paramilitary personnel. Young Chinese people are also being armed.

If he really wanted to fall out, he could at least raise an army of thousands of people.

To wipe out his private armed forces, at least two infantry regiments would have to be deployed. Colonel Griffin, who was stationed in California, only had four to five hundred men at his disposal, so there was nothing he could do for a while.

California was isolated on the western frontier, and Liang Yao had plenty of time to raze San Francisco, Sacramento and even Los Angeles to the ground while the U.S. War Department mobilized its troops.

Even if the U.S. military were stationed, he would not engage in direct battle with them. At worst, he would escape into the vast western mountainous area and become bandits, robbing homes and homes. From time to time, he would come to the gold mining area to fight in the autumn wind and disgust the Americans with the Indians.

Such high counter-insurgency costs are enough to drain the American government.

Of course, this is only a last resort. There is also a milder approach, which is to use public opinion in the east and the Texas landowners and plutocrats who also received land grants from the Mexican government to put pressure on the government.

As for whether it would be effective, he couldn't guarantee it.

"Ahem, this is just the worst result. Maybe the real situation will be better than you think."

Liang Yao's countermeasures made Vanderbilt feel numb after hearing it. I hope he just said it.

It was already late at night when we arrived in Sacramento. Although the Sacramento was traveling smoothly, everyone felt a little tired after sitting on the boat for a whole day, so they decided to rest for the night before conducting the inspection the next day.

Although it was already late at night, the Sacramento area was still very lively.

Many nearby miners have settled here, and many shops are still open late at night.

This is the place where Liang Yao made his fortune, and the city of Sacramento was planned by Liang Yao himself.

The street is wide, and although there are vendors setting up stalls on both sides of the street, it is still more than enough to accommodate four carriages traveling side by side.

What's even more valuable is that the streets of Sacramento have a complete drainage system. Although due to the lack of materials for making drainage pipes, Liang Yao can only resort to open channels for drainage.

But this at least ensures that sewage will not be discharged randomly on the streets, so the streets will be cleaner.

"It's very clean here."

Elizabeth said with some surprise that she had thought that Sacramento would have a poor sanitary environment like many small eastern cities.

Unexpectedly, she didn't even have to hold up her skirt when walking here. The hardened streets were cleaned very clean, so she didn't have to worry about getting her skirt dirty.

Since there are enough public toilets in Sacramento, you rarely see people excreting or dumping excrement on the streets at will. At most, you can see some livestock feces.

The feces of these livestock will not remain on the streets for long because, like the commercial streets in San Francisco, there are dedicated cleaning staff responsible for cleaning the streets.

"My home has arrived. The conditions here are not as good as those in San Francisco. You can just make do with it."

Liang Yao came to his house in Sacramento. His house in Sacramento was built in a hurry. Although it could not be said to be simple, the comfort level was far less than that of Tingtao Garden.

The walls of this house still have bullet marks from the original battle. Vanderbilt looked at these dense bullet marks and asked.

"Has there been a violent conflict here?"

"Yes, some deserters attacked here, and I almost died here. Fortunately, we miners were united enough to drive away the bandits." Liang Yao said with a relaxed look.

Vanderbilt nodded, he was a little absent-minded and seemed to be thinking about something.