1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 169 Plan ahead
"Your Excellency, Colonel, are you looking for me?"

Deng Yan and Elvis walked into Liang Yao's study.

"Colonel Mason's infantry regiment has been severely weakened, and the War Department has asked us in California to be responsible for the defense of the Mexican border."

Liang Yao's eyes were fixed on the map of California on the wall, to be precise, on an unremarkable small village in the south of Los Angeles: San Diego.

San Diego is the closest settlement in California to the US-Mexico border. The straight-line distance from San Diego to Tijuana, a small border town in Mexico, is only about 22 kilometers.

In addition, the coast of San Diego is convenient for shipping and transportation. This is undoubtedly the most suitable place to station at the US-Mexico border.

The only fly in the ointment is that the population of San Diego is too sparse, and the total population of the entire village does not exceed 400.

But this is only a small problem. San Diego is located on the coast of Southern California, with a warm climate and fertile land. It can accommodate a large population and has the potential to become a large city.

In later generations, San Diego is the second largest city in California after San Francisco and Los Angeles in terms of economic strength.

The forces of the Loyalty Society have infiltrated Tijuana, a small Mexican city on the US-Mexico border.

San Diego in California is naturally not immune. The leader of the Loyalty Society on the US-Mexico border is Deng Wenyao. Last year, Liang Yao manipulated Deng Wenyao to be elected as the village chief of the San Diego village.

Deng Wenyao became jealous of Los Angeles after learning that Liang Yao sent [-] immigrants to Los Angeles at one time. Since the telegram was sent to San Diego, he called twice every three days to beg Liang Yao to emigrate to San Diego as well.

Liang Yao knew that this guy felt that his younger brother Deng Wenshun had become the mayor of the village, and that he, the elder brother of Deng's elder brother, was still in front of the village head, which was a bit shameless.

California itself is responsible for the state's defense, which is something Liang Yao can't wait for.

"Mexico's military is weak and unable to invade the United States. They have many internal contradictions. It would be good if they don't fight a civil war. They don't pose a threat to us."

Elvis had served as an instructor of the Mexican government army and had trained the Mexican government army. He knew the virtues of the Mexican army. He made his judgment on this and did not think Mexico was a threat.

"Everything must be prepared for a rainy day. The relationship between the United States and Mexico is not harmonious, and California borders Mexico. We must be fully prepared." Liang Yao said.

On the one hand, the California army stationed in the San Diego village on the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with the Department of War and show it to the Department of War.

On the other hand, it is to put pressure on the Mexican government in the subsequent Gadsden purchase.

Gadsden's purchase of land had already happened in history, and even if he, Liang Yao, hadn't fanned the flames and fueled the flames, it would have happened.

It is still necessary to send an armed force to the US-Mexico border to show friendly greetings to Mexico.

"You are the highest military officer in California, and I obey your command arrangements."

Elvis maintained a posture of standing at attention, speaking with a sonorous tone, he guessed that Liang Yao might want him to garrison San Diego.

"You are in charge of training the militia. The new equipment has arrived. From tomorrow onwards, you will replace the militia with rifled guns. I hope you will treat them equally and train these militia into real fighters." Liang Yao said, "The instructor who trains the militia, you May be selected from active duty officers in the Infantry Regiment."

Liang Yao was stationed in San Diego on the U.S.-Mexico border. He asked Elvis to come here to inform Elvis that he would train the militiamen of the California militia.

The reason why Liang Yao took so much effort to train the militia was also very simple, that is, there were not enough troops.

He wanted to participate in the coercion of the founding of Japan. A regiment of regular troops was obviously not enough, not to mention that the main responsibility of the California Infantry Regiment was to ensure the security of the California territory, and he could not take them all away.

Liang Yao's military rank is a colonel in the army, and he can only have one regiment of regular troops.

If you want to control more troops, you can only get ideas from the militia. The American militia and volunteer troops exist as reserves of the regular army, and the states are responsible for training.

As for the standards and requirements of the militia, the militias of each state have no fixed standards just like their various uniforms and strange military flags.

But these militias all have one thing in common, that is, in the previous wars of the United States, whether it was the War of Independence, or the Second War of Independence in 1812, or the Mexican-American War and the subsequent Civil War, the performance of the militias was generally relatively amateurish. pull across.

Many militiamen temporarily recruited from the countryside can't even tell the left and right. When training them, the officers had to tie straw and hay, which are very familiar to these farmers, to their left and right feet respectively, so that they can distinguish between the left and the right, so that they can better understand train them.

There are also two types of militias in the United States, one is the standing militia and the other is the volunteer militia.

Although both are militias, there is a world of difference between the two.

The standing militia belonged to the kind that men who could carry a gun could join, while the threshold for the volunteer militia was much higher, and even the officers were officers who had served in military schools among the wealthy gentry and businessmen in the state.

In addition, the volunteer militia is not mixed with the standing militia.Therefore, although the scale of the volunteer militia is small, its combat effectiveness is amazing.

Volunteer militias even have specialized cavalry units and hunting units, and some volunteer militia units are even more luxuriously equipped than regular troops, such as the cadet regiment during the Civil War.

The name of the California Militia was invented by Liang Yao himself. In fact, the United States has no strict requirements for the number and personnel of the militia, nor the number of people, because the militia does not need to spend money from the federal government, and is borne by the states themselves.

As long as you have money, you can form a militia brigade and militia division for fun.

But for now, it is enough for California to train one militia, and any more will only increase the state's financial burden.

California's current focus is on economic development rather than military affairs.

"Yes, Colonel!"

Elvis accepted Liang Yao's task.

After assigning tasks to Elvis, the next step is to assign tasks to Deng Yan.

"Lieutenant Colonel Deng, you will lead half a regiment of regular troops to garrison San Diego and build a military fortress."

Liang Yao pointed to San Diego Village on the map and said.

"Yes, sir!"

Deng Yan took over the garrison task.

After dealing with the military affairs in California, Liang Yao went back to his room to rest.

The next day, he went to the middle school to inspect his school, Jinshan Middle School.

The principal of Jinshan Middle School is Pastor Willis, the vice-principal is Pastor Ayose, and the teachers are monks and nuns who are proficient in Sinology. The teachers are quite luxurious.

In addition to the two principals and vice principals, Jinshan Middle School also has an honorary principal, Liang Yao.

When Liang Yao came to the school, the students immediately stood up and bowed to him.

"Hello, principal."

Liang Yao looked at these students who were only slightly younger than him, or even about the same age, and motioned for them to sit down.

"Continue to listen to the teacher's lecture."

Forty-five students who had received secondary education, and 45 teenagers with good physique and decent cultural skills carefully selected by Liang Yao from the immigrants were gathered together to be taught by the monks and nuns of the church.

These people are the hope of future Chinese immigrants in California, and also his future team.

According to Liang Yao's arrangement, 45 students who have received secondary education will find a good middle school for them to prepare for American universities.

He fully bears the cost of studying, and the requirement is that he can only work in the American Group after he completes his studies.

These students are the children of poor families. In the Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination was the right way. People with better family conditions sent their children to official careers, and they would not let them learn from foreigners.

These poor students only wanted to have enough food and clothing, and they had no idea about the contract signed with Liang Yao. They were just grateful to Liang Yao for providing them with board and lodging and training them.

In fact, even during the Westernization Movement period, the mainstream concept in society still believed that Westernization was a side business with no future, and that people who had nowhere to go would engage in Westernization.

In many places, "Westernization" is not even a neutral term, but a derogatory term. People are often cursed with words like "Your Westernization", what kind of Westernization you are doing, and so on.

These seedlings carefully selected by churches and foreign firms are good, talented, and fluent in English. Liang Yao is quite at ease with them.

The 15 teenagers who were carefully selected from among the immigrants were more troublesome. Their educational levels were different, and none of them had received systematic and formal education.

Liang Yao asked them to prepare for the military academy exam.

Officers such as staff officers, commanders, artillery, surveying and mapping engineers, and highly specialized technical arms should preferably have received formal and systematic military school education.

Liang Yao allowed his infantry regiment to use ready-made white officers, but it is not a good thing for an infantry regiment with Chinese soldiers as the main body to have a high proportion of white officers.

In order to ensure that enough students could be admitted to the military academy, Liang Yao selected 45 of the 5 students who had received secondary education to join the military academy preparation team.

The selection criteria is also very simple, that is to select the 5 people with the best physical fitness.

"Pauline, you can teach me English again when you have some time tonight. I haven't learned these things before. These words like bean sprouts give me a headache when I learn them. I'm afraid I can't learn them well, and I'll be taught by my mother tomorrow. "

After the bell rang for the end of get out of class, Liang Xu, Liang Yao's cousin, pestered Pan Baolin and said.

Pan Baolin was born in a family of merchants in Guangzhou, and her English skills are much better than Liang Xu, who received a traditional private school education since childhood.

Liang Yao heard that the two grandsons of Pan Zhengwei can not only speak English, but also French.

Like other students, Liang Xu and Pan Baolin all cut off their braids and put on western clothes.

"No problem, it's on me. We are classmates, and classmates should help each other." Pan Baolin patted her chest and agreed happily.

"Pan Baolin? You enrolled so soon?"

Liang Yao was a little surprised that Pan Baolin enrolled so soon.

"headmaster."

Pan Baolin bowed deeply to Liang Yao: "Grandpa asked me to come to school early to get acquainted with my classmates, and then I came. Principal Willis also agreed. From now on, Pauline will eat and live with my classmates."

Liang Yao looked at the childish Pan Baolin, his eyes revealed a maturity that only adults have.

"Third principals."

Liang Xu habitually wanted to call Liang Yao the third brother, but as soon as he said it, he realized that it was inappropriate to call Liang Yao the third brother in front of others, so he hurriedly changed his words.

"En." Liang Yao nodded slightly, and then said to Liang Xu, "If you want to gain a foothold in the United States, you must study these things seriously, and don't embarrass the Liang family. You are just an ordinary student in school. I will favor you because you are my blood relative."

"Remember the principal's church." Liang Xu agreed.

He knew that the third brother was no longer the third brother who was in Xiangshan back then.

"Your brother Pan Baohuang is also enrolled?"

Liang Yao turned his head to look at Pan Baolin.

"Well, my brother and I went to school together, but my brother studied the army, and I studied law." Pan Baolin replied.

One of the two brothers went to a military academy to join the army, and the other studied law and participated in politics. This was Liang Yao's suggestion to Pan Zhengwei at the beginning.

This Pan Zhengwei acted decisively, sending both grandsons to school so quickly.

"Study hard. Studying the Fa has a bright future in the United States."

Liang Yao patted Pan Baolin's shoulder and said.

"Principal, I have a merciless request."

Pan Baolin hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Say."

"I have asked Principal Willis and Vice-Principal Eyose to borrow the book of law, but the law that the two principals know is the law of Great Britain, and the books of law they have are all books of British law. Grandpa said that I will go to the United States in the future, how can I learn the laws of Great Britain to go to the United States?"

Pan Baolin said with reason and evidence.

"I'd like to borrow some books on American law from sir."

California is a frontier region of the United States, where books are a luxury, let alone legal books.

In the whole of California, there are countless people with a rich collection of books on their fingers, and Liang Yao is one of them.

There was a private library in his manor, which contained books and newspapers which he bought at great expense from the east.

"Did your grandfather teach you to say these words?"

Liang Yao stared into Pan Baolin's eyes and asked.

"These words are my own thoughts, but Mr. Leland Stanford told me about the borrowing of books. I asked him about American law." Pan Baolin said, "Mr. Stanford said, in California, your The collection of books is the richest."

This kid is clever, and his way is wild.

"I don't borrow books from my collection," Liang Yao said.

Hearing Liang Yao say that the collection of books is not available for loan, Pan Baolin felt very disappointed, and was about to say goodbye to Liang Yao, but Liang Yao spoke again.

"But I allow you to read in my library. Liang Xu has never learned English before, so you can help me out when you have time."

"I have to go to school during the day and live on campus at night, I'm afraid I don't have time to read in your library"

Liang Yao allowed Pan Baolin to read books in his private library, which made Pan Baolin very excited, but thinking that she could not leave school normally, her mood fell to the bottom in an instant.

"Pauline, the school can't teach you anything anymore. I allow you to read in Chairman Liang's private library during the day and return to school at night."

When Pan Baolin was in trouble, Willis came over and said to Pan Baolin and Liang Xu, "Go and play for a while, Chairman Liang and I have something to talk about."

After Liang Xu and Pan Baolin left, Willis said to Liang Yao: "This kid is very smart. When the Pan family was in Guangzhou, they hired a Western learning teacher for their child.

According to what you say, he is called a Western school teacher. Jinshan Middle School can't teach him anything, let him learn by himself.Did you come to school this time to see these students? "

Liang Yao nodded: "In addition to looking at these students, I'm also here to tell you that I'm leaving for the east in a few days. I'm going to take these students with me and find a suitable middle school for them in the east."

Willis also agreed with this: "If you want to prepare for universities in the United States, it is indeed more appropriate to send them to high schools in the east. The things I teach them now, they are more suitable for universities in the British Empire. I hope you come back. I can bring back some textbooks from schools in the east."

"Don't wait for me to come back. I have already sent people to the east to buy textbooks. If there is no accident, they will be delivered to California in two months." Liang Yao said.

(End of this chapter)