Southern Rose [Gone with the Wind]

Charles wrote back, saying that according to Josephine's request, starting from Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, looking for land westward, crossing the Mississippi River.Much of the Midlands is still no man's land, and not even a full rail line has been opened from a capital or large city to another state capital.Georgia is considered to be developed earlier, but not all cities are connected by railways. After all, even Atlanta now has only tens of thousands of people living, and the population of the small cities below is only a few thousand to a few hundred. The value of laying railways is not high. high.

Plantations in the central region, including plantations like the Tara Manor near Atlanta, are still using freight wagons to transport cotton to the Atlanta train station, and a large number of warehouses have been built near the train station to store cotton.

The most urgent need for the construction of railways is the external transportation of these large plantations, including mineral transportation, and of course strategic significance. When a country is about to start a civil war with huge impact, the railway line is the battle line and transportation line. The eastern coast There are more railway lines laid in cities, and the number of kilometers of railway lines decreases as they go to the central part.

The vast world has a lot to do.

The U.S. government is vigorously promoting the large railway across the east coast and the west coast. The method adopted is that the railway company provides its own funds, the government provides land at extremely favorable prices, and even adopts a subsidy policy to encourage small railway companies to set up business in remote areas.

The construction of the railway brought a large number of job opportunities, and it was necessary to purchase a large amount of wood, gravel, and iron ore. The iron ore produced in each state was roughly processed in the production area and then transported to the northern factory for further refining and casting. The area is laid on sleepers of uniform length and size.

There are also locomotives and carriages, which need to use a lot of metal, most of which are iron, and there are some stronger iron alloys. After choosing a location, you need to place an order with the factory and purchase raw materials everywhere. Once you start building the railway, it will not take long. The locomotive followed with cargo carriages to transport various materials.

Wherever the tracks are laid, the train will go, and the workers will follow.The irony is that neither the southern nor the northern railway companies would allow black slaves to lay the railways, because the black slaves were worth a lot, and the railway companies recruited a large number of poor Irish immigrants who had just disembarked, fooling them into saying that they had food, housing and wages.

Charles hired two managers, one for hiring and one for purchasing.After choosing a location, he returned to Savannah.

The real big boss does not need to actually go to the construction site to supervise the work, everything is handed over to the manager.

The money was spent in the early stage, and Josephine frowned when she saw the account book. 60 is considered a large amount of money, but in the north, there are many companies that invest millions of dollars, relying on attracting shareholders.

John persuaded the three younger sisters to invest, and each of the three invested $20 each, agreeing to invest in batches.Josephine wrote back and told her father that the first installment of 5 was paid now, the second installment of 8 was paid in October, and the third installment of 10 was paid by the end of January next year.Originally, it was unlikely that these three companies would spend 7 yuan all at once. The meaning of investment is that you have 1 eggs and take out 20 to hatch chicks.The new cotton has not yet reached the picking season, and this year may be the last time Tara Manor sells cotton. She hopes to keep this part of the profit for Aunt Ellen's family.

Leonardo Darcy came to New York and gave $10 to become the No.8 shareholder of the railroad company.

The No.7 shareholder is Philip.

"If you want to do it, you might as well make it bigger. With so much money, it is enough to start three lines at the same time. If the conditions are right, you can also acquire other small companies."

"Do you like the railway company?"

"Of course. There is a railway to transport the goods out of the middle. Without convenient transportation, don't talk about anything. You know, time is money, and the danger of using a horse-drawn cart is that you may be robbed and meet Indians. .”

The whites drove out the aborigines and slaughtered the Indians, and the Indians also returned with revenge.The public security situation in the central and western regions is very bad, so there are very few immigrants and the land utilization rate is not high.The coastal states with the highest utilization rate are areas that are relatively close to the sea, where the traffic conditions are relatively good. There are roads and no railways, and there are many white settlements.

The large railway running across the east and west coasts is not only conducive to material transportation, but also facilitates immigrants to settle in the Midwest. The United States warmly welcomes European immigrants.Immigrants mean labor, and now it feels like there is a shortage of people everywhere.

Leonardo is polite and a complete gentleman, and because he stayed in the north for four years at the university, he is not as hostile to the north as traditional southern slave owners.

Before the engagement, Philip was quite hostile to Leonardo, and no one would like a competitor.But after the engagement, he regarded himself as a winner and received Leonardo as the host.

Leonardo signed an agreement with Charles in Savannah, but ran to New York to hand over the check to Josephine himself. It seemed that he was unwilling and had to find a chance to see Josephine again.

Josephine asked him kindly how he was doing these days and was there anything interesting about Charleston.Leonardo dryly said Charleston was just that, forever boring.He also felt extremely boring while talking, so the conversation fell into an awkward silence.

Josephine stood up. "I'm sorry I can't keep you chatting for a while longer."

Leonardo also stood up immediately, "It's time for me to leave too. I'm going to California next month and will stay there for at least half a year."

He didn't say it, but both Josephine and Philip knew what he wanted to say.

"It's a pity that you can't come to my wedding with Josephine." Philip smiled falsely.

Leonardo forced a smile and left quickly.

The wedding was moved two weeks earlier, on the third Saturday in August.

In Boston, it was held in the parish church of the Tarent family. It was very grand, and there was a lot of relatives and friends: a large number of relatives in the Tarent family, the Robillards and Charles, the three aunts and their husbands and children.

Ellen's daughters, Scarlett, Sullen, and Karin, Eulalie's son Oliver, daughters Alice, and Solange, are all six children who came to the north for the first time. They were both excited and disgusted. The accent is weird and too dry.

Scarlett is 15 years old. She is a charming little southern beauty. She and her sister Su Lun, who is only one year younger than her, have been fighting for favor with their parents since childhood.

Alice and Solange are 8 years old and 7 years old. They are simply replicas of Scarlett and Su Lun.

In Boston, the two pairs of sisters quarreled over who wore which dress, and Emile had to ask the maid to separate the two pairs of sisters, and also let the two pairs of sisters sit separately at the wedding ceremony.

Scarlett whispered to her mother: "Josephine is so beautiful. I will wear such a gorgeous wedding dress when I get married in the future." And I don’t know how much a yard of Chinese silk is, and the skirt is full of pearls.She heard from her mother that white symbolizes purity, and pearls also symbolize the innocence of women. She has long thought about what her wedding dress should look like, and it should be as beautiful, elegant and valuable as Josephine's wedding dress.

Ellen couldn't help laughing, "Look at what you said! Well, my baby will also have a wedding dress like this."

"Thank you, Mommy." Scarlett said happily.

Uncle John walked in from outside the church door with Josephine on his arm. The organ was playing music, and the weather was fine, not as hot as Atlanta.

Standing on the altar in his white wedding present, Mr. Tarent was handsome, not her Ashley.She was looking forward to her own wedding in the future, imagining what he would look like standing on the altar—he must be prettier than Mr. Talent!

She was absent-mindedly listening to the priest recite the wedding prayer, her little feet under her skirt were already moving restlessly, and she was eagerly looking forward to the evening banquet and dance.

The newlyweds at the altar exchanged wedding rings and kissed each other.

Only then did Josephine feel a little excited, and asked in a low voice, "Are we really married?"

"It's really married." Philip squeezed her chin with a smile, and kissed her again.

All relatives and friends applauded and congratulated.

"Come on." He motioned for her to take his arm, and led her down the altar and out of the church.

Su Lun, Sister Karin, and several girls from the Tarent family hurriedly stood on the aisle, grabbing rose petals from the flower basket in their hands and throwing them.The kids are always frizzy and petals are thrown everywhere.

In addition to Emile and Mrs. Tarent, the ladies sprinkled white husk rice to the newlyweds, which means "to give birth more".

Josephine followed Philip out of the church in a daze.There were photographers outside, and the newlyweds and relatives and friends took many pictures outside the church door.

Never before had Josephine been smiling all the time, so much so that her facial muscles stiffened.

After the wedding, the newlyweds took a carriage to the Park House Hotel, which is known as "the most modern hotel in the world", and stayed in the best penthouse suite in the hotel. Josephine took a nap for two hours and changed She wore a new dress and went downstairs to attend her own wedding reception.

The wedding banquet can be said to be extremely luxurious. It was held in the restaurant of Park House. Instead of using traditional round tables, 10 long tables that can seat [-] people were placed.

The silver cutlery was shiny, and there were many candlesticks on the table; under the ceiling was a crystal chandelier, with mirror reflectors to refract the light of the candles.

On each table there were two plates of roasted peacocks, the peacocks stuffed with turkeys, the turkeys stuffed with pigeons, and the pigeons stuffed with swan eggs.

The red-shelled lobster is longer than the arm of an 8-year-old child.

Plates of large oysters, Black Sea caviar in small crystal bowls, French foie gras.

French truffles, champagne.

Various unnamed dishes, half of which were decorated with gold leaf shards.

The men each got a box of hardcover cigars, and the women all got excellent French chocolates.

The main table is also the same long table, but only sat on the side facing the guests.

In front of Josephine are all her favorite foods: swan eggs, roast pigeon, caviar.

If you are not short of money, you can actually eat it every day.

She also likes to eat the meat in the claws of the lobster, which is much more delicious than the meat of the shrimp.Philip gently knocked open the shrimp claws with a small hammer, dug out the white meat inside, put it on a silver plate, and pushed it in front of her.

"It's not good for you to do this," Josephine said softly with a smile, "You will make it look like I've eaten too much."