The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 700 Yin Yang Imbalance
California was the fastest growing of all the colonies of the Austrian Empire at this time. The power of gold attracted countless gold prospectors, just like Jason who was looking for the golden fleece from the German Confederation.

(Jason, the hero in Greek legend who found the Golden Fleece.)
At this time, the Panama Canal has not yet opened. If you want to reach California from Europe, you must first disembark at the Central American colonies of the Austrian Empire, then turn to the inland river to reach the Pacific Ocean, and then take the sea route to San Francisco (San Francisco).

Central American colonies mainly refer to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, among which Nicaragua has a canal that leads directly to Lake Managua, which can greatly shorten the distance and save a lot of time.

It is not the grand canal planned by later generations to cut through the isthmus of Central America and connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to Lake Nicaragua. The main reason is that the project volume of this canal is too large, and it is difficult to complete it with the equipment at this time.

Since the Austrian Empire acquired the Nicaragua colony, it has been digging a canal to connect it to the Pacific Ocean.

However, the depth of this canal is not enough to allow ships to pass through, and even large cargo ships cannot pass through many narrow openings, but small and medium-sized passenger ships are still possible.

Or bypassing South America directly, passing through the Strait of Magellan to California, which takes almost half of the world's journey, can't stop the enthusiasm of gold diggers.

In history, many gold diggers died before reaching California. Although the death rate was greatly reduced under the leadership of Franz at this time, they generally owed huge debts before they came.

Because whether you choose to bypass South America or take a short cut to take the canal in Nicaragua, you will need a lot of transportation fees.

As we all know, except for a few professional teams, the gold diggers are usually composed of some people whose lives are not satisfactory, or who are about to die.

Others, such as gamblers with dreams of getting rich, businessmen who owe huge debts, and local hooligans who want to rob and cause trouble, are not good, but they also have a common feature that is poverty.

It is not without reason that gold prospectors in history would rather cross the Death Canyon than march by land, because although the land is more dangerous than the sea, and it will delay several months, the cost is less than one-third of the sea route.

Regardless of the difference of only three times, many people can afford a caravan and a few rough horses even if they lose their fortunes, but a person can't pay for a ticket to California even if he loses his fortune.

In fact, most of the gold diggers couldn't even afford rough horses, they used ox carts.The advantage of using oxen to pull carts is that they can be used to pull carts and to eat.

But the disadvantage is also very obvious, that is slow.The longer you stay in the dead zone before you reach California, the more dangerous it is, and most of the tragedies of the gold rush era have been related to the dead zone.

However, Franz still offered a lot of discounts in order to lure people to California, especially the boat tickets can be paid in installments, which made the gold diggers call "conscience"!
However, those gold diggers with crude gold mining tools only found out in California that almost all large and rich mines have been included in the scope of state management, and other small mines are also charged to enter.

And their crude tools simply cannot compete with advanced machinery and scientific screening processes.

The machinery of those so-called professional teams is even more ridiculous. Most of them are designed by laymen, so they are not practical at all. The results of these people are not even as good as those gold diggers with simple tools.

The gold in California is not fake. Many people have earned money that they could not have earned in their entire lives through their own efforts.

But the price of goods in California is not generally high. After all, the Omer Joint Development Company has monopolized all local resources, even the return ticket.

Therefore, the local living consumption is also very astonishing, but the greedy nature of human beings defeated rationality at this time. Most people did not choose to leave with the gold they dug, but chose to settle down and continue digging.

Of course, there are also some smart people who see the opportunity and become farmers or small shopkeepers.But even so, they still need to pay various taxes, and it is impossible to reproduce the lawless place in history.

Despite the many pitfalls, life in California is still much easier than life in continental Europe, which is why it can attract so many immigrants.

Namibia is also a gold mining mecca promoted by the Austrian Empire, and it is closer to the European continent than California.

However, both the reputation of the gate of hell and the harsh natural environment are daunting.

The Karst Plateau, the Homas Plateau, and the Schwarzland Mountains, although these places have been infiltrated by colonists for hundreds of years, the natives are still fierce, and there are a lot of unexplored areas.

At the same time, due to the relatively low transportation costs, many people choose to leave after making a fortune.The population is highly mobile, and Franz has nothing to do with it.

The several settlements established in the interior of the Austrian Empire have never been able to attract a large number of immigrants, and even some of the immigrants have given up agriculture and turned to grazing like the local natives.

In contrast, the environment in California is much superior. The flat land, endless fertile fields, rivers with abundant water sources, abundant but not harsh sunshine, and distinct four seasons are simply an agricultural paradise.

However, California, which has no worries about food and clothing and can make a lot of money, actually has some problems.

The first is the threat from the United States and France. If it weren't for the barriers of the Nevada desert and mountains, the Americans' guns would already be on California's forehead.

The second and most important problem is the extreme imbalance in the ratio of men to women.

There are less than 8000 Hispanic natives and 2.5 Austrian imperial soldiers, 80% of whom are veterans and mercenaries recruited by Umbrella.

There were 20 immigrants from Germany, 15 immigrants from Central America, 3 U.S. soldiers captured and surrendered, and 2 private soldiers of several Mexican warlords (invading California privately and those who wanted to take advantage of the fire).

There are about 2 Indians, 3 to 2 Mexican immigrants, and some Americans who were deceived by smugglers. There are about [-] gold diggers from other countries.

Among the total population of 10,000+, there are less than 30 women, which means that the male population is [-] more than the female population.

These 30 bachelors have brought an extremely unstable impact on the local area, and at the same time gave birth to an industry that is more profitable than panning for gold.

That is one of the oldest occupations of human beings. Although the Mexican side tried its best to cooperate, even the local Indian women were not enough.

Las Novias, which Tasan Anna and a group of senior Mexican officials participated in, has grown from one to fifty in just a few years, but it still cannot meet local needs.

(Spanish for bride.)
(End of this chapter)