1850 American Gold Tycoon

On January 20, 1852, the "California Daily" published an article "Go to Oregon", encouraging Californians to go to Oregon for reclamation and to develop the high-quality forestry resources in Oregon.

The Oregon Reclamation Group, organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, will organize this immigration and help immigrants who are interested in going to Oregon to establish settlements in the Oregon region.

Considering that there is no news of precious metal minerals being discovered in Oregon, it is not very attractive to immigrants. Liang Yao personally took the lead and organized a joint venture of Chinese businessmen from the China Chamber of Commerce to invest US$1.5 million to set up a special settlement fund to fund this immigration operation.

As long as they are willing to sign up to immigrate to the Oregon area, within the first three years, the Reclamation Corps will use funds from the Reclamation Fund every year to issue a real money subsidy of US$20 to each immigrant every year.

At the same time, the reclamation group will provide agricultural tools and seeds for the immigrants.

Bank of America will also provide immigrants with five-year interest-free loans of less than US$200 to help them survive the most difficult years of pioneering.

The most important thing is that the Oregon Reclamation Corps will set up an armed force of 300 people specifically responsible for protecting the safety of immigrants from the Oregon Reclamation Corps to address the immigrants' concerns about safety issues.

Of course, in return, in the next 13 years, members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce will have priority in purchasing the goods of immigrants.

What California is most lacking right now is not money, but supplies, especially food.

Although Liang Yao has made great efforts to encourage Californians to farm in the Central Valley, the state government has also provided special subsidies to the Department of Agriculture to build water conservancy facilities near the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley to provide irrigation for the surrounding newly cultivated farmland. Both water sources.

However, the newly cultivated land is relatively barren, the soil fertility is relatively low, and the grain yield is average. If the grain yield is to increase, it will take several years until the soil fertility increases and the new fields become mature fields.

It’s not that there are no mature fields in California, but these mature fields were cultivated by early immigrants. In 1848, the non-Indian population in California was only 40,000, and there were not many mature fields in the entire state.

There are few mature fields, but the number of immigrants in California is increasing day by day. In the next few years, California's local food production will definitely not be able to meet the needs of California's local population.

According to data provided by the Department of Agriculture, California's food self-sufficiency rate last year was about 65%, and the remaining food gap was filled by importing food from surrounding Indian tribes, Central America, Chile, and even Japan and the Qing Dynasty.

"Three hundred armed men are too few. I heard that Bernat has three to four hundred desperadoes on hand. They specialize in killing Indians for fun and scalping Indians for a living. Some Indian tribes are about to be killed. He is extinct."

In Tingtao Garden, Pan Zhengwei looked at the "Oregon Reclamation Corps Reclamation Plan" that had just been handed to him. When he saw the last item, he shook his head repeatedly. He felt that 300 people were too little armed and a bit insufficient.

The main force of the reclamation regiment is Chinese. The skin color and appearance of the Chinese are not much different from those of the Indians. There is no guarantee that one day this kid will sneak up on their settlement stronghold and scalp them to collect rewards.

"I've already said that this guy's time is numbered, so you don't have to worry."

Liang Yao asked Hu Jinchen to unfold the map of the Oregon region and pointed to a village called Eugene at the southern end of the Oregon Valley.

"The fertile land of Oregon is in this valley on the western coast. The village of Eugene was the first stop of the reclamation group. The mayor of this village has a good relationship with Mayor Sutter (the mayor of Sacramento). They are old acquaintances and have a deep understanding of California. His attitude is also very friendly. As long as he takes root in Eugene Village and establishes a solid settlement base, the next step can be to go north and establish a foothold in Salem Village or even Portland Town."

Liang Yao did not immigrate to Oregon on a whim. After swallowing one-third of the Nevada area, Liang Yao began to ask Chinese businessmen who came north to trade in Oregon to collect information about the Oregon area.

Liang Yao had his own plan for colonizing Oregon.

Eugene Village is later known as Eugene, the third largest city in Oregon. It was founded in 1846. It is a very young village with a population of more than 800 people. It was only because of the California Gold Rush that it reached a population of more than 800 people.

The current mayor of Eugene Village is a German named Thomas. He is a fellow villager with Sartre, and the two have close contacts.

When they were still in Sacramento two years ago, Liang Yao and Sutter jointly opened a sawmill. Since the quality of wood in Oregon was better, Thomas provided wood to the sawmill in 1850 and also had business with them. of dealings.

When the California Railroad Company was building railroads, Thomas became one of the California Railroad's sleeper suppliers and made a lot of money.

People are profit-seeking, and they found that it was faster to make money by providing lumber to California. The few fields in Eugene Village were abandoned, and the village that was originally self-sufficient in food also began to live a life of imported food.

Over a hundred Chinese people have settled in Eugene Village. Most of them are hunters, and a few are small farmers. The Chinese have more or less roots in Eugene Village.

It is also more appropriate to choose Eugene Village as your first stop for colonizing Oregon.

After the gold rush of 1848, California became the center of the West Coast of the United States, and the Oregon region increasingly relied on California for supplies.

But the attitude of local non-Indians toward California is generally more friendly toward California the closer it is to California.

The village of Eugene is a "large" settlement in the Oregon area relatively close to California.

"The land around this big bay seems to be good, flat, and you can go directly to the waterway, and the transportation is more convenient." Wu Yuanhua pointed to a bay area on the map and said.

"And the village of Eugene is only accessible by land."

Liang Yao glanced at the place Wu Yuanhua was pointing to. The bay area Wu Yuanhua was talking about was the bay area around Seattle in later generations.

This place is indeed good, but this place is still the territory of the Indian tribe. Only last year did sporadic white explorers settle there.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

The most important issue is that the United States has a territorial dispute with the British Canadian colony in the Oregon region. The forces in this area are intertwined and complicated.

(The Oregon Territory is not equal to the state of Oregon. The Oregon Territory at this time included all of Oregon, all of Washington State, all of Iowa, and a small part of Wyoming and Montana. This is only within the United States. Oregon Territory, the British Canadian colony of British Columbia also belongs to the Oregon Territory)

If you want to open up land in Seattle, you must not only deal with the British Empire's Hudson's Bay Company on the west coast of Canada, but also with the white Americans who have just settled there and the native Indian tribes.

The situation is not as complicated as usual, and on Liang Yao's side, no one except himself has the ability to handle the relationship between these three parties at the same time.

Furthermore, at this time, the British Empire was at its peak of national strength and had abundant military virtues at sea. It was not a soft persimmon like Mexico. It did not have to make trouble for the British and make itself uncomfortable.

It would be nice if the territorial disputes in the Oregon region were a headache for the federal government. Seattle is not the only good land in the Oregon region.

As long as we first establish ourselves in the Oregon region and take root in the Seattle area, we can gradually follow up.

"Eugene Village is accessible by land. In the future, I will also raise funds to build a railway to the north, directly leading to Eugene Village." Liang Yaowei said with a smile.

There is a trade trail that can be walked in Eugene Village. It is said to be a trail, but as the exchanges between Oregon and California have become closer and closer in the past two years, this trail is actually no longer a trail in the actual sense.

Due to the need to transport timber, the road has become wider and wider, even large carriages can pass.

Liang Yao's statement about building a railway to the village of Eugene in Oregon was not false. He did have this plan.

It’s just that the length of this railway is about the same as that of the California Railway (San Francisco-Los Angeles). Going north from Sacramento, after leaving the Central Valley, there is a mountainous area. The difficulty and cost of construction are probably even worse than those of the California Railway. It cannot be fixed overnight.

Fortunately, before the construction of the railway was completed, the "trade trail" from Sacramento to the village of Eugene via the two small settlements of Medford and Roseburg was sufficient.

"Now that Eugene Village is established, it slowly moves northward until it penetrates into Portland on the Columbia River. The president is still thoughtful. The white Americans in Oregon mainly live along the Columbia River with Portland as the center. We Using Eugene Village as the starting point for reclamation can also temporarily avoid its sharp edges, saving a lot of trouble."

Pan Zhengwei also agreed with Liang Yao's plan.

"Since everyone has no objections, then this matter is settled. After recruiting people and preparing supplies, we can go north. The escort of the colonization regiment can be selected from the immigrants. I will also select from the California Infantry Regiment. Select some capable non-commissioned officers to help you train the escort team." Liang Yao said.

"What about the foreign guns?" Zeng Jinsong asked.

"I specially allocated 500 Springfield M1842s to the colonization regiment, 300 of which were rifled." Liang Yao replied.

"That's great. With the California Infantry Regiment's sergeant helping to train the troops, and the good foreign guns, we can sit back and relax, as long as we work hard on the cultivation." Zeng Jinsong said happily.

In fact, regarding the issue of the escort team, Liang Yao could completely send the existing armed forces directly into the Oregon area to protect the reclamation regiment.

He now has three full regiments of troops in his hands, and his troops are relatively rich.

Furthermore, although the Oregon Territory is nominally a territory of the United States, the number of white American immigrants is not dominant in the Oregon Territory, and the effective territory actually controlled by white people is also very limited.

The vast area of ​​Oregon is still under the control of various Indian tribes, and the local white people are also very insecure. If Liang Yao is willing to send troops to the Oregon area, the local white people will definitely welcome it. After all, Liang Yao belongs to the American Army. able to provide them with protection.

But Liang Yao did not intend to do this, firstly to let these Chinese learn to take up arms to protect themselves, and secondly to avoid falling into the quagmire of war with the Indians.

Many tribes in the Oregon region, especially Chief Seattle in the later Seattle region, are targets for unity and cooperation.

There is no need to make too many enemies for yourself if you can solve the problem by making friends.