1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 42 The Loyalty Society and the Legion
It only takes seven hours to reach San Francisco along the American River along the Sacramento Riverside Pier.

But traveling upstream from San Francisco to Sacramento takes sixteen or seventeen hours, or even longer, even by steamboat.

Small steamers and schooners on the American River came and went in an endless stream. This inland route connected the two most important cities in California: San Francisco and Sacramento, greatly improving the efficiency of the exchange of people and materials between the two places.

The American River is 9 meters deep and is a navigable river.However, the river is not wide enough, the average width of the river is less than 20 meters, and the transportation capacity is limited.

If you want to further improve transportation efficiency, you still need to build roads and railways, especially railways!

"You took away the two best steamships in my fleet, and now my fleet consists of five small sailboats of three or four hundred tons, and one small paddle steamer! You promised me thousands of What about the tonne steamship?"

The ship Sacramento arrived in San Francisco, and Liang Yao disembarked at the pier on the river bank of San Francisco.

Sven buzzed in Liang Yao's ear like a fly.

"Captain Sven, Mr. Vanderbilt will arrive in San Francisco in two days, and your ship will hear news soon."

Strauss dismissed the noisy Sven for Liang Yao.

On the pier on the river bank, Deng Wenshun waited on the river bank with thirty or so congregants of the Loyalty Church wearing black Chinese tunic suits and wearing the California Black Bear badge on the left chest.

Behind them are more than a dozen new members who have just passed the review and are about to undergo the induction ceremony.

After eliminating Brannan's remnants, Liang Yao expanded the Loyalty Society on a large scale in order to effectively control San Francisco.

The first members of the Loyalty Society were only Liang Yao and his five cousins. Even including the witness Deng Yan, there were only seven members, and the hierarchy was not very strict.

After a new round of expansion, the Loyalty Society has grown into a large organization with [-] members.

Official members of the organization wear black or gray tunic suits.

If you want to further distinguish their status in the meeting, you can tell them by the badge worn on their left chest.

Those who wear the bronze black bear badge are the trainees who have not officially joined the congregation. They have the lowest status in the congregation and the lowest salary. The monthly salary is only 6 ounces of gold.

Although the monthly salary of 6 ounces of gold seems a lot, it is in California where the prices are exaggerated. If you want to live a decent life in California, you need a job with a monthly salary of at least 20 ounces.

Of course, considering that the Loyalty Association manages the board and lodging of members, the monthly income of 6 ounces of gold can be used to meet other trivial expenses, and they can also live a life of food and clothing in California.

The main reason is that you can see hope in the Loyalty Society. Once you are promoted to a full member, your monthly salary will reach 12 ounces of gold, and you will get a silver black bear medal that only full members of the Loyalty Club are eligible to wear.

Loyalty will take care of food and housing. If he earns 12 ounces of gold every month, he can save a lot of gold and send it back to his hometown, where he can buy a house and land for his son to study.

But this is the idea of ​​the unpromising people. The promising people have already sent a letter back to ask their relatives and friends to come to Citigroup to seek gold, so that they can rely on themselves.

Further up is the senior congregation with a monthly salary of 20 ounces of gold and wearing a gold black bear badge.It is also the ultimate goal of most people.

A little more ambitious is to become the middle and high level of the Loyalty Society.

The middle and high-level members don't wear the black bear badge, but the better-looking and more exquisite dragon head badge.

It is also divided into gold, silver and copper according to the different grades. It is a great honor to be eligible to wear the dragon head badge.

As long as you wear the dragon head badge, you are eligible to participate in the dividends of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company, and Xiangshan Gold Mining Company is currently the largest gold mining company in California. As for how much income they can earn, ordinary people like them cannot know .

The dragon head badge is currently only eligible to be worn by the five brothers of the Deng family, as well as the head of the legion, several patriarchs who only follow the lead of the leader, and the four ghosts whom the leader trusts very much.

The head of the legion is Deng Yan, the second uncle of Dalongtou, who manages a guard of [-] people for Dalongtou, also called the legion.

Becoming a member of the Legion is another way to make a fortune, but members of the Legion have extremely high requirements for physical fitness. Of course, being able to read and write and use firearms proficiently can be a plus.

Members of the legion not only take care of their own board and lodging, but also the board and lodging of their immediate family members, and their salary is higher than that of ordinary loyalist members. The salary of ordinary legion members is 18 ounces of gold per month, which is only slightly lower than that of senior members of the loyalist church .

But there is a price for everything. Not only are the members of the legion strictly managed, but they also have to be trained by two ghost coaches every day. They are either training or shooting guns. Life is very hard.

Of course, both the Loyalty Society and the Legion serve only one person!
That is the big dragon head who has just stepped off the steamer and wears a gold dragon head badge on his chest!
That is the existence that both the Loyalty Society and the Legion agree with each other.

The Chinese in California can hold their heads high and not be oppressed by foreign devils because of this big leader. Even the sheriff of the ghost will say hello politely when he sees the big leader.

Since Brannan's death, the feng shui has changed in California. It's not that Chinese are afraid of foreigners, but foreigners are afraid of them!
Why?It is because of the big leader!Big Dragon is now ten of the most wealthy and powerful men in California!

"Hello big leader!"

Dozens of Loyalist members shouted from the bottom of their hearts on the pier along the river in San Francisco.

"Hello, brothers!"

Liang Yao responded by raising his hand, signaling the initiation ceremony for new members.

The incense table and statue of Guan Gong had already been placed on the pier, and Liang Yao took the lead in lighting incense and kowtow to Guan Gong.

The old and new members of the Loyalty Society followed closely behind. Although the two old and new members didn't understand and didn't know which god from the East was placed on the table, they followed suit and kowtowed. funny.

The two old men believe in the Orthodox Church, but in front of gold, faith is no longer important.

I have believed in God for so many years, but I have never seen God bless them to make a fortune, but as long as I kowtow to this unknown oriental god in front of me, I will be able to live the life of a master, whether it is a Yankee, an Irishman or The Mexicans dare not bully them any more.

After paying homage to Guan Gong, there is a braid cutting ceremony, where old members cut braids for new members.

When it was the turn of the two old men, the old members had a difficult time. One of the two old men was bald and the other was Mediterranean. There was nothing to cut.

In the end, the old member holding the scissors focused his attention on the thick beards of the two old men. They had no hair, so they could cut their beards. Anyway, they were all haircuts.

After the fifteen new members cut their braids, Liang Yao felt that it looked much more pleasing to the eye. Zhongshan's big braids looked awkward no matter how they looked.

Deng Wenshun walked up to Liang Yao holding the black bear bronze medal that had just been cast, and asked Liang Yao to award the new member a medal.

Liang Yao gave the numbered black bear bronze medals to the new members one by one in order.

"Wen Shun, the Loyalty Society needs to set up new halls in Los Angeles and Tijuana, and you will be in charge of the new halls in Los Angeles."

Los Angeles will be the second largest city in the United States next to New York in the future. It is the center of the United States and the world's cultural industry. Industrial groups representing American cultural symbols such as Hollywood, Disney, and Universal are all located in Los Angeles.

History has proven that the development potential of Los Angeles is no less than that of San Francisco.

But now Los Angeles is just a small town with only 1500 people, or a village, and he needs to take control of Los Angeles as soon as possible.

As for Tijuana, it is a small border town on the U.S.-Mexico border in Baja California.

Right now, Canada is still a colony of Great Britain. The focus of the development of the British Empire in Canada is the Hudson Bay area in southeastern Canada, while western Canada is a barren area with few colonial strongholds.

The Pacific Railway is still missing. Vanderbilt is starting to develop a route from the eastern part of the United States-Nicaragua-California, but it is still under development and has not yet opened to navigation.

Liang Yao wanted to trade with foreign countries and obtain daily necessities that he could not produce by himself for the time being. Only Mexico and a few countries on the Central American Isthmus could choose.

"What about Tijuana? Give it all to the ghost?"

Deng Wenshun asked.

"When the contract between Wen Yao and Sartre expires, send Wen Yao to Tijuana to practice."

Deng Wenyao had been sick for half a month, and the employment contract with Sutter had not been terminated so early, and Sartre refused to let him go. Liang Yao could only wait for their employment contract to expire before sending Deng Wenyao to Tijuana.

Liang Yao, a member of the Mexican Loyalty Society, was really not at ease when Tijuana was completely handed over to him.

Now San Francisco is a melting pot of races. Everyone came here from all over the world for gold. In addition to Americans and Chinese, Russians, French, Australians, Peruvian Indians, Indian Brahmins, Japanese Indians, Mexicans and Maori have everything.

The Loyalty Church has also absorbed many congregations from these ethnic groups. Of course, the main body is still mainly Chinese.

Two fast steamboats of about five or six hundred tons sounded their shrill whistles and sailed into the port of San Francisco, as if they were in a demonstration.

A white hired worker came to report the situation to Liang Yao. The hired worker spoke French, and Strauss relayed the situation to Liang Yao with a complicated expression.

"The fleet of the Eastern Consortium has arrived in San Francisco."

"Do you know which family it is from?"

Liang Yao frowned slightly. Isn't the Eastern Consortium not going to San Francisco until the end of the year at the earliest?

It's only June, how did they get around Cape Horn in South America and arrived in San Francisco so quickly.

In my impression, at this time, Vanderbilt's plan to dig a canal in Nicaragua to connect several lakes in Nicaragua was still on paper.

Could it be that these people from the eastern consortium flew over?
　As for the population composition of San Francisco, I refer to what Vanderbilt’s second son, Coney, saw here in 1849, not all of them. Among them, there are doubts about whether there are Japanese in San Francisco at this time. It is likely that this kid cannot tell the difference. The Chinese and Japanese in the Qing Dynasty regarded the Chinese as Japanese.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)