1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 656: Few people responded

"These country bumpkins in the central region are so shameless!" The irritable Sartre walked into Liang Yao's office, cursing and complaining to Liang Yao.

"We sent out a total of 150 invitations, but only 36 people were willing to come to North Platte to attend the party. Among these 36 people, 10 are Chinese."

In order to win over the local celebrities and wealthy merchants in the central frontier area, Liang Yao asked Sartre to send invitations to these local celebrities and wealthy merchants, inviting them to North Platte for a gathering. Unexpectedly, there were few responses.

Liang Yao was not as angry as Sartre, and this result was within his expectations.

His roots were in the West Coast region, and it was only in the past three years that he extended his tentacles to the central Great Plains. In the past three years, he still focused on the North Platte River Valley in the central frontier region, and had very limited strategies for the Great Plains east of the valley.

As for economic ties, with the pitiful transportation capacity of the Pacific Railway, it can only barely maintain the operation of the areas along the line and the Platte River Valley, and it is impossible to project influence to other areas.

In terms of economic ties, the villages and towns in the central border area are more closely connected with the Northern Federation, after all, the Northern Federation has the advantage of location.

Liang Yao asked Sartre to send invitations to these people more to test their attitudes, and did not expect to mobilize the manpower and material resources of the central border area for his use now.

"At least thirty-six people bought our account." Liang Yao stacked the processed documents on his right hand and motioned Sartre to sit down and talk.

"You are quite open-minded." Sartre took the tea from Zeiss, "The land in the central border area is not all unowned land. If we want to implement our national policy in these places, we can't avoid these people."

"I know." Liang Yao said.

"The new recruits of the Northern Union have very poor military discipline. Although McClellan is very good at training mobilized soldiers, he is still too inexperienced and lacks reputation to completely suppress the officers and soldiers from various states under his command. These country bumpkins in the central region have long complained about this. They are unwilling to keep the appointment. They may not be wholeheartedly on the side of the Northern Union, but are waiting and watching."

The poor military discipline of the US military is a chronic disease that has not been cured in the 21st century. Moreover, it is now the mid-19th century, an era when the concept of states is stronger than the concept of the country. Americans will have to wait until the end of this war to truly establish the concept of the country.

The second batch of mobilized soldiers under McClellan mainly came from the old northeastern states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. People in these areas originally looked down on the country bumpkins in the central frontier areas.

These people dare not act recklessly in the developed northeastern region with a dense population and a sound legal system. When they arrived in the central frontier region with a sparse population and a few policemen in a town, they can be said to have completely let themselves go. It is normal to borrow something from a fellow villager and care about the female family members of a fellow villager.

As for the local civilian armed forces in the border areas, it is okay to let them bully the Indians. Faced with the serious modern state violence machine, the local civilian armed forces dared to be angry but dared not speak out.

At the beginning of the war, the North lacked veterans with reputation enough to convince the public. No Northern general dared to pat his chest and guarantee that he would be able to suppress the generals under his command except Scott.

"Wait and see?" Sartre put down the teacup. After Liang Yao said this, he was not so annoyed. "The discipline of the Northern Army is indeed poor. Omaha has been tossed into an empty city by them."

"The fact that 36 people can come is enough to explain the problem." Liang Yao said, "Take advantage of this banquet to test their mouths and write down the names of these people first."

After that, Liang Yao sent Sartre away and checked the telegrams exchanged between Mason and McClellan.

In this era, there was no concept of military telegraph network, let alone the awareness of encrypted telegrams.

This is the same for both the North and the South. Both sides use the method of clear code to communicate and lack confidentiality awareness. The West uses encrypted code to generate electricity, which is an outlier.

During the entire war, the North frequently leaked secrets. In addition to the fact that there are many Southern sympathizers in the North who actively provide confidential information to the South, the lack of confidentiality is also an important reason. Even a teenage temporary worker at the post office can participate in the deciphering of the North's confidential telegrams.

Therefore, the content of the telegram between Mason and McClellan did not even require the deciphering step. Not to mention Liang Yao, even the ordinary staff of the North Platte Post Office knew that the two Northern Army generals were not getting along now.

Mason and McClellan were not in harmony, and this might be used.

After lunch, Liang Yao came to the Platte River for a walk.

The main urban area of ​​North Platte is located between the South Platte River and the North Platte River. The two rivers meet in the east of North Platte City. The South and North Platte Rivers are the natural barrier of North Platte City, shaping this frontier town that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Although this place has a geographical advantage and is easy to defend but difficult to attack, Liang Yao hopes that North Platte will no longer be a frontier town in three months.

North Platte is not only a frontier town at present, but also a shipping center in the central frontier region. The only shipyard in the central frontier region that can manufacture steamships is located in the north of the city.

The North Platte Shipyard is busy in three shifts, and the workers in the shipyard are repairing the steamships requisitioned by the military.

This battle is related to the fate of the country. Liang Yao did not hold back and almost took out all the assets he could.

The regular army has three infantry brigades, the newly expanded artillery brigade, cavalry brigade, machine gun regiment, rocket regiment, and militia from all over the country who came to assist in the battle. The total number of troops participating in the war is more than 60,000.

Relying solely on railways and mules and horses is definitely not enough to meet the logistical supply needs of more than 60,000 people, so Liang Yao ordered the requisition of almost all nearby steamships.

Liang Yao walked around the shipyard and was pleased to find that more than 80% of the workers in the shipyard were young Chinese, many of whom were senior technicians trained from technical schools in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Ten years ago, there were only a handful of Chinese who could build and repair steamships, and senior technicians could only be hired from the east with high salaries. Now Liang Yao has full hematopoietic ability. This is the confidence of Liang Yao to challenge the Northern Federation.

The North Platte River is not a very suitable inland navigation canal. During the non-flood season, the average width of the river is about 50 to 100 meters, and the water depth is usually between 1 and 2 meters. Due to its shallow water depth and narrow river channel, large ships have difficulty sailing on it.

The shipyard is overhauling some barges or small cargo ships, with displacement ranging from five or six tons to seventy or eighty tons. Cargo ships with a displacement of more than 70 tons are very rare.

The natural endowment of the Platte River is still very limited after all, and it is difficult to achieve great things by staying in the Platte River Valley.

The upper limit of the size of inland cities in this era depends largely on the endowment of the river. In order to develop the central frontier and compete in North America, Liang Yao needs to seize a river with better natural endowment as a support, such as the Mississippi River.