1850 American Gold Tycoon.

In August 1856, Senator Lincoln of Illinois came to California.

California's dignitaries warmly received the tall, energetic Illinois senator.

Lincoln did not regret missing this year's general election. He successfully ran for the Illinois State Senate, served as a member of the Illinois State Congress, and controlled the Illinois Legislative Assembly. It shows that American voters, especially those in Illinois, have already Accepted the fact that Lincoln was the leader of a new party.

His political career has taken another big step forward.

After the dinner came to an end, Lincoln formally submitted his resignation letter to Liang Yao, resigning from his position as the chief counsel lawyer of the Atlantic Railway Company.He also expressed his gratitude to Liang Yao for taking care of him when his life was at a low point.

"You don't need to thank you, you fought for this job yourself." Liang Yao agreed to Lincoln's request to resign.

"Mr. Liang, this time I came to California to thank you for my resignation. I came to California with a mission," Lincoln said.

"You are the commissioner in charge of investigating the corruption case of the California Customs Branch?" Liang Yao guessed.

Earlier, both Congress and Fillmore had sent him telegrams, saying that they would soon send a commissioner to California to investigate corruption in the Customs Service.Liang Yao guessed that Lincoln might be the commissioner in charge of the investigation.

"Exactly, so I want to trouble you one last time." Lincoln nodded and said, "I came to California alone. Without the assistance of my colleagues in California, I'm afraid it would be difficult to carry out my work."

"Captain Fryge!" Liang Yao called out the Chief of the Police Department, Flege. Flege was the sheriff of California during the Gold Rush period, and he was a senior figure in the California police circle.

"Your Excellency, are you looking for me?" Flaige heard the news and came to Liang Yao's side.

"Commissioner Lincoln wants to investigate a case, and you will be responsible for assisting Mr. Lincoln in investigating this case." Liang Yao said to Flage.

Knowing that Lincoln was going to investigate the case in California, Fleiger was somewhat resistant, and he was about to decline, but Fremont said seriously to Fleiger upon seeing this.

"Mr. Lincoln was ordered by the Congress and entrusted by the President to come to California to investigate the corruption of the California Customs Bureau."

"It turned out to be the investigation of the Customs Bureau. We must cooperate! We must cooperate! The Customs Bureau should indeed investigate."

Knowing that Lincoln wanted to investigate the Customs Bureau in California, Fleger immediately changed his face and said that he would do his best to cooperate.

"Then trouble Frye with the pattern." Lincoln shook hands with Fryege, expressing his thanks to Fryege.

After the dinner was over and the guests dispersed, Lincoln took out three Jardine Theater tickets from his pocket and invited Liang Yao and Fremont to watch the play in the theater.

"I heard from critics that there are dramas from China in California. Chinese dramas are very distinctive and more refined than Western dramas. I have long wanted to see them. Unfortunately, I have been busy with work and have not had the opportunity to come to California.

I don't have any other friends in California except the two, and I want to invite you to watch the show with me. "

Lincoln was an avid opera fan, Liang Yao knew that.

Liang Yao and Fremont smiled at each other, and accepted the invitation of this rising Republican political star to go to the Jardine Theater in San Francisco to watch a play.

After 1853, in order to meet the spiritual entertainment needs of the rising middle class and the wealthy class, a number of theaters appeared in large cities in California.

However, the most famous theater is the Jardine Theater established by the Jardine Group.

The Jardine Theater has two theaters, one of which is located in Sacramento. The theater is mainly for the upper class. A common theater ticket costs as high as 3 to 5 US dollars, and formal attire is required to watch the theater.It is jokingly called "Noble Theater".

Another theater is the Jardine Theater in San Francisco. This theater is mainly for the working class and the middle class. You can buy a seat with a good seat for only 20 cents to 50 cents.It is known as the "Popular Theatre".

Lincoln, who had just arrived, did not know the difference. He only knew that the Jardine Theater was the most famous theater in California, and the tickets he bought were for the Jardine Theater in San Francisco.

The three came to the theater on horseback. Since it was night, Liang Yao and Fremont were wearing top hats, so after arriving at the theater, the audience did not notice that the state speaker and the governor also came to the "Popular Theater" to watch the play.

Having found his place, Lincoln waited with great anticipation for the play to begin.

The opening play is a new play "La Traviata" which has just been brought to California from France. However, the purpose of Lincoln's trip is to see Chinese drama, so Lincoln does not have much interest in this opening play which he has already seen at the Chicago theater. Big enthusiasm.

The next plays are six sets of Cantonese operas from Guangzhou. They are said to be Cantonese operas, but they are actually modified to cater to the tastes of the local people, but the performances of the dramas are still presented in the form of Guangdong operas.

Liang Yao flipped through the repertoires of today's Cantonese operas. Apart from some traditional repertoires, there was even a "Gold Rush of Southern Cantonese Talents", which was magically modified according to his experience, which made him dumbfounded.

When the Chinese opera started, Lincoln was much more energetic and stared intently at the stage.

The first Cantonese opera to be performed was "Tang Minghuang".The coloratura soprano that resembles an opera, and the large passages of Cantonese reciting, not to mention Lincoln, even Liang Yao, a Cantonese, may not be able to fully understand it.

However, with the actor's costumes and superb acting skills, Lincoln, an old theater fan, still understood the play, and followed the audience to cheer for the performers' wonderful performances frequently.

When the play ended and the actors walked off the stage holding the gong to ask the audience for tips, Lincoln also showed extra generosity, directly took out two $1 gold coins and put them in the gong, and looked at the actors curiously costumes and makeup.

This kind of strange costume and makeup was something he had never seen before.

"This drama alone is worth today's ticket price. They are the most skilled actors I have ever seen." Lincoln said very excitedly.

"Chinese drama is very much like Italian opera with circus juggling, Chinese kung fu, peculiar costumes, and unique music and vocals. It's very interesting. Unfortunately, I don't know Chinese, so I can't understand the charm of drama very well."

Western theaters have complex stage facilities and sets, which can show better stunts and performance effects, while Chinese theaters mainly rely on actors' performances and props to present the plot, and test the actors' performance skills.

Therefore, Chinese theater actors in the 19th century were slightly better at acting.

In order to accommodate more audiences and charge more tickets, the Jardine Theater adopts Western-style theater buildings, not traditional Chinese theater buildings.

However, although the Jardine Theater is a Western-style theater building, these actors are basically famous actors dug from Guangdong, and their performance quality must not be bad.

"It's not necessarily useful to know Chinese." Fremont laughed. "These opera singers speak dialects. Although I can speak Chinese, I can't understand it just like you."

"If you want to watch juggling and kung fu, you will be able to feast your eyes on the next show." Liang Yao pointed to "The Monkey King" on the repertoire list.

"I look forward to it." Lincoln waited with great anticipation for the start of the next play.

It was one o'clock in the morning when the play ended.

There is no curfew system in San Francisco, so even though it is one o'clock in the morning, the streets of San Francisco are still very lively.

As the origin of kerosene, kerosene in California is relatively cheap, and the supply is relatively sufficient. The street lights on the main roads of major cities in California usually do not go out until dawn, which is quite like a city that never sleeps.

"I've only seen this kind of scene in New York. I didn't expect such a bustling city that never sleeps in the frontier area." Lincoln sighed.

"Mr. Lincoln, please treat us to a play, let us treat you to a late-night snack." Liang Yao pointed to the stalls outside the theater and said.

At one o'clock in the morning, considering operating costs, most restaurants and even taverns are already closed.

Only the street outside the Jardine Theater is still operating until late at night due to the stable source of customers of the theater.

After watching the play with Lincoln for a few hours, Liang Yao felt a little hungry, and planned to have some supper here before going back to Taoyuan.

"It's a great honor." Lincoln said contentedly after watching the play.

The three of them came to a relatively clean booth. Liang Yao ordered a fresh shrimp dumpling, a serving of roast meat, a stack of peanuts, and a bowl of chaos, while Fremont ordered half a roast goose, a Roasted marinated pigeon, and a seafood soup with abalone sauce.

Lincoln didn't know what to order, so he ordered what Liang Yao and Fremont ordered.

Fremont was a little surprised to see Lincoln ordering so many, but Liang Yao was not surprised at all.

Lincoln was born in the poor at the bottom, and he has done rough work, so it is not surprising that he eats a lot.

They were surrounded by audiences who had just come out of the Jardine Theater. These audiences also found a suitable seat on the commercial street in groups of three or four, chatting while eating supper.

Unlike the East, the hottest topic of discussion among Californians is not the abolition of slavery, but more about economic issues, such as where is the most promising development in California right now.

Go to an adult vocational school to learn a skill and enter a factory as a senior technician, or go to Los Angeles to work as an oil worker, or take your own savings to mine in Nevada to try your best.

These are the questions that immigrants in California are more fond of talking about.

Of course, there are also a few people who talk about North-South issues, but after all, this is the far west of the United States, and North-South issues are too far away from ordinary people, so there are relatively few people discussing these issues.

"Life in California is really pleasant after watching a wonderful play and eating delicious snacks." Lincoln ate the whole meal in front of him.

"The people live in prosperity and there is no war. This is a pure land in the United States. People in the east are not talking about black people, or they are talking about whether they should vote for Buchanan or Scott.

I heard that the Civic Party is going to vote for Buchanan, the Democratic Party. Does your party support Mr. Buchanan's campaign? "

Lincoln seemed to have a good appetite, and Fremont, who was sitting next to Lincoln, had a surprised expression: You call this a snack?I can't eat that much for dinner.

After Liang Yao finished a few mouthfuls of fresh shrimp dumplings, he ordered a small jar of wine and three wine glasses from the stall.

The stall owner saw that Liang Yao and the others were dressed luxuriously and had extraordinary auras. He knew that the identities of the three were unusual, so he took out a jar of red lees wine from his own collection and poured it for the three of them: "Three distinguished guests can come to a place like me. The small stall is a small honor, but there are only some bad wines drunk by the peddlers here, if the three of you are not used to drinking, can you go elsewhere and buy some good wine for the three of you?"

"No, it's just him."

Fremont took a sip of the wine in his glass.He still likes this kind of wine with a strong taste, a bit sweet and sour taste, and a strange color.

He drank too much high-end wine, and Fremont also wanted to try something new. Fremont took out a 5-dollar gold coin and handed it to the stall owner, as payment for the wine.

The stall owner said that the jug of wine was not worth $5, and Fremont said that the extra money was a tip for him.

"Not really. To be honest, the Citizens are not happy with either of these candidates. I don't know where you heard the rumors. Whether the Citizens voted for Buchanan or Scott in the end, and ultimately Only the voters in California and the party congress will be able to reach a conclusion." Fremont asked Lincoln.

"Mr. Lincoln, I wonder which candidate the Republican Party is more inclined to support in this general election?"

"Just like your party, there is no conclusion yet." Lincoln said, "To be honest, the Republican Party wants to nominate a candidate to represent the Republican Party this time, but as you know, the Republican Party is young and weak, and there are many brilliant people in the party. Members of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the Republican Party needs time to integrate the members of the party.

But one thing is certain, our party insists on maintaining the unity of the United States, and opposes slavery, a system that is inhumane, damages the image of the country, and hinders social progress. "

"However, the U.S. Constitution does not stipulate that the United States must be a unified political entity, and each state has the right to join the federation and also has the right to withdraw from the federation.

Nor does the Declaration of Independence ever say that all men are equal regardless of color, size, intellectual, moral, or social ability. "Liang Yao said sharply.