1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 521

The starry sky at night on the outskirts of Provo is exceptionally clear, and the air is exceptionally fresh.

After a lot of tossing about the opening ceremony, Liang Yao was physically and mentally exhausted.

Now the Pacific Railway, the traffic artery running through the east and west, has been repaired.

The drive from Provo to Washington has been shortened to about a week, so he decided to stay in Provo for one night before leaving for Washington tomorrow.

Liang Yao rode a horse and led a group of followers to patrol around Provo.

The moon is extremely bright tonight. Standing on the mountainside, you can have a panoramic view of Provo City by Utah Lake, and you can even clearly see the most conspicuous building in the city: the somewhat nondescript and weird church of the Mormons.

"Kruger, if you were asked to build a military fort along the Pacific Railway, where would you choose?" Liang Yao got off his horse and sat on the ground, motioning to sit down with Kruger who was on the left and right.

Building military forts along the Pacific Railroad?
Kruger was surprised by Liang Yao's question.

Liang Yao had always had a good relationship with the Indians, so building military forts along the Pacific Railway was naturally impossible to guard against the Indians.

Furthermore, even if the Indians are used as the imaginary enemy, there is no need to spend such a high price.

The only answer is that Liang Yao built a military fort along the Pacific Railway to defend against threats from the east. To put it bluntly, the US military outside the Western Brigade.

Could civil war be breaking out soon?
Kruger felt very headache when thinking about these political issues, but he did not ask Liang Yao why he had this idea.

He is a pure professional soldier, he should ask the questions he should ask, and he should not ask the questions he should not ask.Kruger still has this awareness.

Kruger thought for a long time, and carefully gave an answer: "Your Excellency, it depends on whether you simply want to protect the railway, or to protect California, the western terminal of the railway, and... and your imaginary enemy."

"Suppose a war broke out between the east and the west." Liang Yao gave a hypothesis.

With this hypothesis given by Liang Yao, Kruger gave a relatively clear answer: "There are fewer troops in the west and more troops in the east. If a direct conflict breaks out between the east and the west, the best way is to follow the Pacific Railway, the traffic artery." , with the advantage of terrain to defend layer by layer, purchase multiple defense systems.

Omaha, the starting point of the Pacific Railway, is located in a plain and is easy to attack and difficult to defend, so it is not suitable as the starting point of the defense line.

If it were me, I would choose the city of North Platte at the mouth of the Rocky Mountains, at the confluence of the South Platte and North Platte Rivers, as the starting point of the defense system. "

"Continue talking." Liang Yao nodded, he was quite satisfied with Kruger's answer.

The South Platte Valley is the main route into the Nebraska Territory and the Colorado Territory, and the North Platte Valley is the main route from the Nebraska Territory to the Wyoming Territory.

As long as the city of North Platte is controlled at the intersection of the two river valleys, it is equivalent to controlling the throat from the Great Plains to the west into the Rocky Mountains.

This idea coincided with Liang Yao's.

"Further to the west, the Colorado Territory is sparsely populated, with less than [-] people. We only need to control the largest settlements in the territory, Denver and Fort Collins.

Although Denver is not on the Pacific Railway, if it is for military considerations, we can build a branch line to Denver City to effectively control Denver.

In this way, Fort Collins is in the north and Denver is in the south, which can constitute our defense system in Colorado Territory.The two cities can echo from the north to the south, and the defenders will not be trapped in the isolated city. "

In 1857, the Colorado Territory was still very desolate. There were less than 27 settled people on nearly 1 square kilometers of land, which was far behind Utah.

The population of Colorado Territory is so sparse that there is not even a settlement with a population of more than a thousand people in the territory.

Denver and Fort Collins, the two largest settlements in the territory, only have a population of 600.

Vanderbilt was responsible for building the section of the Pacific Railroad through the Colorado Territory, and Vanderbilt chose to pass through Fort Collins rather than Denver for economic reasons.

But it's not a big problem. The distance between Fort Collins and Denver is only a little over 100 kilometers. For the safety of the west coast, Liang Yao can still afford to build a 100-kilometer railway.

Kruger continued: "Colorado Territory is further west and Utah Territory is the most important part of the defense.

The Utah Territory is more developed than the Colorado Territory, and its population has more supplies.

It is also the easiest place for enemy troops to obtain supplies on the entire railway."

"You mean that Utah Territory can be fortified and cleared if necessary."

Liang Yao said what Kruger did not dare to say.

Kruger nodded: "General Mingjian, it's just that the strong wall and clear field are based on the premise of gaining complete control over the area that is hardened and cleared.

If you can't keep the walls clear, you can only stick to Provo and Salt Lake City in the north.

Both cities were along the railway line, and the defenders could support each other and disperse the enemy's forces. "

Further west is the Nevada Territory and the Nevada District of California.

Liang Yao has been operating in the Nevada area for many years. As long as Liang Yao does not commit any crimes, it is almost impossible for the US troops in the east, whether it is the Northern Army or the Southern Army, to take Nevada quickly after trekking over mountains and mountains.

If Nevada cannot be taken in a short period of time, the eastern U.S. military waiting for a lone army to penetrate into Nevada will only have to run out of ammunition and food, and the entire army will be wiped out.

"You don't need to talk about the Nevada area." Liang Yao stood up and patted the debris on his buttocks.

"Your Excellency, I don't really understand. Since you know that the Pacific Railway will pose a strategic threat to the West Coast after its completion, why do you spend a lot of money to build this railway?" Kruger asked puzzled.

"The U.S. military in the east can attack us from the west through the Pacific Railway, so why can't we use the Pacific Ocean to go east?" Liang Yao said.

"Every coin has two sides. Considering the economy of the west coast, it is impossible for me to give up building this economic artery between east and west and give up the huge market in the east because of potential strategic threats."

The construction of the Pacific Railway has advantages and disadvantages, but in general, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.Liang Yao has no regrets about building this railway and the Garde Railway under construction in the south.

"On the strategic level, you still think carefully. That's why you can be a general, but I can only be a colonel." Kruger suddenly realized.

"Kruger, I have a task for you." Liang Yao suddenly raised his voice.

"Yes! Your Excellency! Please instruct!"

When Kruger heard that Liang Yao was going to assign him a task, he hurriedly got up and saluted Liang Yao, waiting for Liang Yao to give him the task.

"Your Arizona regiment is stationed in Utah Territory with immediate effect, the regimental headquarters is at your choice.

In addition, you train a militia in the Utah area. Remember, the officers and soldiers of this militia must be non-Mormons.You can apply to me for the required weapons funds. "Liang Yao gave Kruger a task.

"Yes! Your Excellency!" Kruger accepted the task.

Kruger understood Liang Yao's character. He knew that Liang Yao would not allow a religious force, especially a rebellious religious force, to control important places along the Pacific Railway.

Your Excellency, Brigadier General, is about to start cleaning up the Mormon forces in the Utah area.

After a week's journey, Liang Yao arrived in Washington, the capital of the United States, from Provo, Utah Territory.

Including the two and a half days it took to get from Sacramento to Provo, the entire trip took no more than 10 days.

Previously, travel time from California to Washington was measured in months.

Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen, who arrived in the United States for the first time, were also able to enjoy the elegance of the eastern United States.

To their disappointment, the eastern region was not much more developed than the cities they visited, including Golden Mountain, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

At this time, the people in the eastern states are suffering from the economic crisis, and the pedestrians on the streets are very depressed, and few people have smiles on their faces.

Especially in big cities, unemployed people can be seen everywhere holding wooden signs saying they are looking for a job.

There was even a long queue in front of the relief office.

From time to time, you can see unemployed vagrants fighting for food relief.

Therefore, Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen don't think the east is so good. Instead, they think that the life of Californians is happier and the city is cleaner and more orderly.

The Pacific Railway was full every day when it was just opened.

Eastern newspapers often portray the West Coast as a paradise on earth. After the opening of the Pacific Railway, it is much more convenient to travel from the East to the West Coast than before.

Therefore, many easterners, especially the middle class in the east, decided to try their luck in the west.

The New York-Sacramento train ticket sold by the New York Central Railway Company on the first day of operation was $120 a ticket.

Rao is that the train tickets are so expensive that the train tickets were sold out in just half an hour.

The next day, the New York Central Railway Company raised the fare to $150 a ticket, and it was still sold out within half an hour.

The third one, priced at $200 a pop, is still sold out.

On the black market, train tickets from New York to Sacramento were fired to more than 300 dollars a ticket, and it is still hard to find a ticket.

This made the executives of the New York Central Railway Company, even Vanderbilt, unable to deal with it, and did not know how to price it.

Liang Yao originally thought that the price of a train ticket of US$120 would be enough for him to screen out middle-class and above immigrants to go to the west.

Unexpectedly, he still underestimated the severe economic situation in the east. Many people lost their wealth, sold their houses and land, and only exchanged for a ticket to the west coast.

What's more, the New York-Sacramento train ticket is called a passport to heaven.It seems like the West Coast region is paradise.

Even the easterners who couldn't afford it and couldn't buy tickets didn't give up their plans to go to the west coast.

As soon as the train arrived at the train station, the crowd rushed up and climbed directly to the roof of the train, just to enjoy the free listing.

Liang Yao had seen such grand occasions several times along the way, which made him doubt whether he had arrived in India or Bangladesh.

I didn't expect that Americans would also take the train to hang out.

In sharp contrast, the Sacramento-New York ticket sales are also very good and can be sold out every day.

But people from the west coast are far less enthusiastic about traveling east than people from the east are traveling to the west coast.

Except for a few people on the west coast who buy train tickets to do business in the east, most of the emerging middle class buy tickets for the purpose of traveling in the east.

Therefore, a ticket to the east is dispensable for them.

At the Washington Railway Station, after the train stopped, Liang Yao and everyone else had just stepped off the train when a carriage specially prepared for them by Buchanan picked them up and took them to the White House.

With the help of Liang Yao, Shen Baozhen and Buchanan discussed the cooperation of shipping administration.

Since Shen Baozhen did not have the right to make decisions about shipping administration, he never gave Buchanan a clear answer.

The more ambiguous Shen Baozhen's attitude was, the more Buchanan believed that the series of anti-China events in the east had made the special envoy of the Qing Dynasty unhappy.

For this, Buchanan repeatedly bowed and apologized to Shen Baozhen and Liang Shaoqiong, promising that similar things would never happen in the future, which made Liang Yao, who was working part-time as a translator, dumbfounded.

"Okay, Your Excellency President. Your Excellency the Special Envoy said that he is tired and wants to rest. After returning home, the Qing Dynasty will inform us if it decides whether to jointly run the shipping administration with Britain, France or the United States." Liang Liang Yao said to Buchanan dumbfounded.

It is true that Buchanan's tenure coincided with the worst period in American history, which made it difficult for Buchanan to do anything.

But this cannot conceal the fact that Buchanan is indecisive and incompetent.

God gave Buchanan the opportunity to become the master of ZTE, but Buchanan did not grasp it, but chose to show it badly.

The vast majority of politicians in this world follow the rules and are content with the status quo.Brave politicians who dare to break the status quo and stand up for it are, after all, one of the few outliers.

The biggest achievement of Buchanan's tenure was taking advantage of the second Opium War to coerce the Qing Dynasty and the United States to sign the "Tianjin Treaty."The treaty was the first unequal treaty between China and the United States.

"Regarding the recent anti-Chinese incident, I have made a public apology, and the relevant compensation has also been in place. Mr. Liang, I think the Huaxia Chamber of Commerce should also cancel the strike?"

After personally sending Liang Shaoqiong and Shen Baozhen away, Buchanan said to Liang Yao.He hopes that Chinese businessmen can cancel the strike as soon as possible.

"I will notify the chamber of commerce for related matters." Liang Yao nodded and said.

"In addition, please help us win the matter of co-organizing shipping administration with the Qing Dynasty," Buchanan said.

"The federal government is so poor that it can't afford to pay soldiers."

This Buchanan is not a newcomer in the political arena, but an old fritter in the American political arena, but he still can't speak at all, saying this in front of him, a general with real power.

Hearing these words, Liang Yao frowned.

(End of this chapter)