1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 474 Disposal of Xindi

In the evening, Liang Yao invited Fremont to his small house in Sacramento to attend his family dinner.

He also only invited Fremont, which was his highest-profile reception for Fremont.

Fremont is the most like-minded person since he came to California. The two met during the gold rush.

Then we went through the most difficult years at the beginning of the founding of California, until we have California today.

Sometimes Liang Yao would think, what would happen if he lost the battle with Colonel Mason?
California reduced to the back garden of the eastern consortium?Chinese continue to live at the bottom of the chain of contempt in American society?What do Easterners think of Californians not as wealthy men but as dirty gold diggers and whores?

"It's been a long time since I practiced swordsmanship. Come to fencing?" Fremont suggested after drinking and eating.

"Fencing? Just finished eating, it's not advisable to exercise when you're full."

Liang Yao shook his head, and found an excuse to prevaricate.

Fremont is a well-known swordsman, a ruthless man who has retreated from seven duels.Liang Yao has only won once in the sword competition with Fremont so far, and he won by sneak attack.

If you compete with Fremont, you will only be abused by him.

It is more appropriate to practice swords with evenly matched enemies.

"You only invited me to dinner today, and you didn't even invite Sartre and Ge Wen. You must have asked for me. If you don't practice swords with me, I will leave now." Then, Fremont pointed to Liang Yao The sword at the waist.

"I heard that your sword was given to you by Napoleon III. If I win, your sword will belong to me."

"If you want my sword, just tell me. I'll give it to you directly. I'm willing to give up a mere sword." Liang Yao laughed.

Liang Yao has no habit of collecting weapons. He originally had two swords presented by the head of state.

One was the sword given to Colonel Mason by President Polk. After Colonel Mason was captured, this sword became Liang Yao's trophy.Later, when she went to Texas, Zooey liked the sword, so Liang Yao gave the sword to Zooey.

As for the second sword presented by the head of state, it is the one on his waist now, and it was a gift from Napoleon III.

"There is an allusion in China that the hungry don't eat the food that comes with it. Even I, a swordsman, cannot accept your charity for no reason." Fremont said.

"A swordsman loves the sword, and he gets it properly."

"I'm good at Sinology, so I'll reluctantly compete with you." Seeing that Fremont was determined to want the sword, Liang Yao knew that he couldn't refuse, so he asked someone to bring him a protective gear.

Hearing that there was going to be a sword competition, Zooey was very excited, and hurried up and said, "Mr. Fremont, when I was in Texas, you were a well-known swordsman. I want to compete with you."

"Why are you joining in the fun of the matter between us two men?"

The sword is ruthless, Liang Yao is worried that Zoe will be hurt by the sword.

Fremont is a relatively stubborn person. When he first learned swords, Fremont and him practiced swords without letting go of water once.

"Don't underestimate Miss Zoe, maybe Miss Zoe's swordsmanship is better than yours." Fremont laughed.

The southern part of the United States is martial, and a southern woman like Zoe, who is not a typical lady, knows a little bit about swords and guns.

Before Liang Yao nodded, Zooey took the protective gear from the servant and put it on quickly.

Seeing this situation, Liang Yao could only take off the saber from Zoe's waist, and handed her a wooden sword: "Use a wooden sword!"

Fremont also quickly put on the protective gear and walked to the yard. He said to Zoe, "Miss Zoe, for the sake of fairness, we will compete in ten rounds. If you win one round, I will lose."

"Your Excellency Fremont, it is my honor to compete with you." Zoe nodded to Fremont, and then started a contest with Fremont.

Liang Yao, Bell and others watched the battle from the sidelines.

The ending was obvious, with Fremont winning seven innings in a row against Zoe.

Only in the eighth game, Zoe almost won the careless Fremont.

It seems that what Fremont said is true, Zoe's swordsmanship may not be worse than Liang Yao, a half-baked swordsmanship rookie.

After the competition, Zoe took off her protective gear, then brought her own sword, and handed it to Fremont: "Your Excellency Fremont, I lost."

Fremont glanced at the inscription of President Polk on the scabbard, smiled, and said, "I also have the sword presented by President Polk. Miss Zoe, you can keep this sword for yourself."

Fremont was a great hero during the first Mexican-American War. He also received an award from President Polk and presented him with a sword.

"He wants the sword from the Emperor." Liang Yao was willing to admit defeat, untied his sword and gave it to Fremont.

Fremont pulled out his sword, carefully admired the sword under the kerosene lamp, and exclaimed: "After all, it is the sword presented by the Emperor, a good sword, a good sword."

"Let's go, let's go to the pavilion to drink tea and admire your sword." Liang Yao pointed to the pavilion a dozen steps away.

The two came to the gazebo, and Liang Yao personally made tea for Fremont.

After making the tea, Liang Yao poured the tea for Fremont and said, "I came to you today mainly for the land tax."

"Land tax?" Fremont took the tea from Liang Yao with both hands, and took a sip gently.

"Yes, land tax. The Ministry of Agriculture wants to carry out agricultural reforms, cancel land quotas for immigrants, and stimulate food production." Liang Yao nodded.

"This is a good thing." Fremont put down the teacup and said after a moment of meditation.

"Are you worried that this bill will not pass the state assembly?"

"Exactly." Liang Yao said frankly, "The founding fathers of California hold a large amount of land. The key is that these lands do not need to pay taxes, and the cost of holding land is very low."

“You are the person with the most land in California,” Fremont said. “If this bill passes, you have the most to lose.”

"But for the sake of California's future, it's okay for me to lose a little profit. My money is earned in California. Without California, I wouldn't be where I am today. I don't want California to be destroyed by me," Liang Yao said.

Taxation is the foundation of a country. A large number of vested interests hold a large amount of land at a very low cost. In the long run, it will be a disaster for the Jedi of California.He can't take this head.

Taxation is the foundation of California, and California is the foundation of Liang Yao. Without California, maybe he would not be nothing, but he would never have the status and influence he has today.

"Since you understand the righteousness so well, I am willing to support you. I have several mines in the Colima area, and I also have some shares in the Los Angeles Petroleum Company and Umbrella Company in my hand. I can also afford the land tax." Remont said.

"California is also my home. I am the first American to arrive in California."

The investment methods of the upper class in California are relatively diverse, and land is not their only means of production. This also makes it possible for the reform bill of the Ministry of Agriculture to pass.

If it is in an agricultural country, especially a feudal agricultural country, such top-down reforms are absolutely impossible to succeed.

"I will do the work on the Chinese side, and you will do the work on other ethnicities. Your workload will be greater. You need to convince Sartre and Gwen. As long as Sartre and Gwen nod, this matter Basically it can be done." Liang Yao continued.

"Ge Wen is good to say that Ge Wen is not a very assertive person, and it is easier to persuade. What Ge Wen is most interested in is not the land, but the steel plant. As for Sartre, he is obsessed with the land, but I will try my best to convince him Yes." Fremont agreed.

After speaking, Fremont took out a telegram and handed it to Liang Yao.

"This is a telegram from Washington this afternoon."

Liang Yao carefully read the translated telegram under the kerosene lamp.

There is a lot of information in this telegram.

One is that Congress has passed a motion to establish a state in the Oregon region, allowing the Southern Oregon region to form a state.

The scope of the Southern Oregon Territory is roughly the same as that of the later Oregon State.Does not include the later Washington State area (at this time known as the Northern Oregon Territory).

The second is to allow Baja California and Baja California Sur, as well as the state of Sonora to directly merge into California and become part of California.

The remaining areas were established as the Governorate of West Mexico, enjoying the treatment of the Territory of the United States.

President Fillmore hoped that California could recommend a candidate for governor of the Western Mexico Territory for the federal government to choose.

This was exactly what Liang Yao wanted.

Liang Yao said excitedly: "In this way, our California will become the largest state in the United States, and the Gulf of California will also become our California's inland sea."

The three places directly assigned to California, Baja California and Baja California Sur are barren, but the Sonora area has abundant reserves of high-quality hematite, copper, coal, gold, silver and zinc deposits.

In this way, all the mineral deposits needed for the second industrial revolution are stored in California.

This is the only place in the United States where scorpions shit.

More importantly, these three areas were not the core territory of Mexico, and the population is very sparse, with a combined population of less than 30.They are all local candidates, the degree of development is relatively low, and the influence of Mexican culture on the local area is relatively small.

Small size and no strong culture mean that it is easy to assimilate and the cost of core making is relatively low.

"Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco, and Colima have not been directly incorporated into our California administrative divisions, which shows that the federal government still does not want California to be too large. The South It is already planned to establish a state on the newly occupied Mexican land." Fremont felt that there was some fly in the ointment.

"Even if these places are assigned to us directly, we won't be able to eat them." Liang Yao didn't feel this way, he said.

"These places are the core territory of Mexico, but they have a total population of more than 200 million. We in California are only in the early 100 million. It may not be a good thing to directly include these places in our administrative divisions, and we cannot bear the high cost of governance. effective rule over these areas."

If California had a total population of 800 million, Liang Yao would of course choose to eat these areas directly. The reality is that California does not even have a population of 200 million.

Politicians in Washington still have two brushes. It is indeed the most sensible and cost-effective choice to implement detainment and rule over these areas and let the Mexicans manage the Mexicans.

As for the South establishing a state in their Mexican-occupied area, it was because the South was anxious to compete for the Congress in the Senate and House of Representatives.

If the South fails to handle its relations with these Mexican new states in the future, sooner or later these places will become landmines that the South does not know when they will be detonated.

"That makes sense." Fremont nodded, and then asked, "Governor of the Western Mexico Territory, do you have any suitable candidates to recommend?"

Although the federal government asked California to recommend the governor of the West Mexico Territory, the federal government did not know as much about the situation in the West Mexico Territory as they did.

It is said to be a recommendation, but in fact, as long as the candidate in the California newspaper is selected, it is basically who will be the governor.

"Pedro Torres, the former governor of Colima, Mexico." Liang Yao already had a suitable candidate in mind.

"Pedro has a relatively close relationship with us, and his prestige among the Mexicans is relatively high. With us supporting him, he can barely restrain the local Mexican tyrants."

During the second US-Mexico War, when Liang Yao launched an offensive on the western front in western Mexico, this man ignored the friendly army's plea for help and chose to be neutral, which meant that this man would still stand in line.

Colima also changed its flag under his leadership and became the first Mexican state to voluntarily declare its membership in the United States.

The most important point is that Torres joined the coal and steel alliance four years ago and was the first batch of Mexican mine owners to join the coal and steel alliance.

He himself and California's economic interests have long been deeply bound.

This is also the reason why Colima State chooses to be neutral when the war is stalemate, and chooses to risk the world's displeasure and openly change its flag when the situation is clear.

The bond of interest between the Colima region and California is too deep.

(End of this chapter)