1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 725 The son of aristocratic family

After lunch, Liang Yao wondered who would be more suitable to send to Suez.

In his early years, he collaborated with Vanderbilt to build the Nicaragua Canal, and he had many talented people under his command who were capable of building and operating the canal.

However, there seems to be no one who has experience in building and operating canals, is trustworthy, and can speak French.

Even he himself only learned some simple French from Zoe, and his level was just barely enough to cope with simple daily communication.

His direct conversations with Napoleon III were still conducted in English.

"Sir, the captured Northern Federation congressman wants to see you. Do you want to see him or not?"

While Liang Yao was thinking, Cai Si interrupted his thoughts.

"Leave them alone for a while, I'm thinking about important matters." Liang Yao was a little impatient.

After the Battle of Omaha, they captured two Union senators and seven congressmen.

These Northern Union congressmen came to Omaha with their families to watch the battle and put on a show, but they failed to put on a show. After McClellan failed to break out, he and his family were all captured by the Western Army.

The Western Army had already exchanged prisoners of war with the Northern Federation once, but only more than 80 soldiers and grassroots officers were exchanged.

Even McClellan is still under house arrest in Pratt.

The reason why only more than eighty prisoners were exchanged was very simple, because the Northern Federation could not provide prisoners of equal value for exchange.

Before the ceasefire, Liang Yao would not consider unconditionally releasing the northern prisoners.

After the First Battle of Manassas, Robert Lee also captured a group of Northern congressmen who came to the front line to show off, totaling nearly 20 people.

Robert Lee was very tolerant towards them and released them on the spot.

Liang Yao's mind is not as broad as Robert Lee's.

Most of these congressmen have strong family backgrounds, especially the two senators, who are core members of prominent families in New York State.

It would be a pity to just let them go. Since they are all wealthy, let their families pay for their redemption.

"Yes, sir!" Zeiss nodded in agreement.

When Cai Si was about to turn around and leave, Liang Yao suddenly called out to Cai Si again: "Cai Si, do you know who speaks French better?"

"Emmm, French." Chase paused for a moment and said, "Mrs. Zoe's French is at the level of a native speaker."

"It has to be a boy." Liang Yao added a condition.

"If you add this condition, in addition to our French translator, your father speaks French quite well," Zeiss replied.

"When did my father learn French? Why don't I know it?" Liang Yao was very puzzled.

Cai Si lowered his head and said nothing. Liang Yao knew that Cai Si did not dare to say it. Although Liang Shaochen had no status in the military and political circles of the American Republic, he was Liang Yao's father after all.

"Just say it, I won't be angry." Liang Yao said to Cai Si.

"Your father has three French mistresses. He seems to have a special liking for French women. Many people in the French community in Jinshan know about it," Chase said vaguely.

"Okay, I understand." Liang Yao said with a little embarrassment, "Let the members of the Northern Federation come in to see me."

Liang Yao couldn't help but feel jealous of his cheap dad's carefree life when he thought about how he worked himself to death and was busy as a pipe, while his cheap dad still had time to study French with three French teachers.

Damn it, other people's fathers work hard while their sons enjoy, but he is the son who works hard while his father enjoys. When he goes back, he must exile this cheap father to Africa.

Soon, nine well-dressed Northern federal congressmen, led by Astor and Livingston, came to the reception room.

Many of these Northern Federation congressmen were old acquaintances of Liang Yao. They had met at the gold mine in Sacramento twelve years ago.

Neither of them had expected that they would meet again in this way.

"Mr. Astor, how are you?" Liang Yao took the initiative to greet Astor and others with a smile.

As the saying goes, dragons give birth to dragons and phoenixes, and mice's sons can dig holes.

Most of the second and third generations of Northerners who worked in the Sacramento gold mines have now inherited their family’s property or part of it, and have become the most prominent group of people in the Northern Federation.

Astor inherited his family's political legacy and became a senator from New York State.

As for the family's property, perhaps because the current head, Backhouse, is too attached to money, or perhaps because he does not trust his prodigal sons, the Astor family's property is still managed by Backhouse himself.

The founder of the Astor family, John Jacob Astor, has passed away for many years. The Astor family relies on the huge fortune left by John Jacob Astor and the careful financial management and prudent investment of William Backhouse Astor, the current head of the Astor family.

The Astor family remains one of the most powerful traditional top families in America.

As the saying goes, the grace of a gentleman will fade after three generations and be cut off after five generations.

The abilities of the heirs of the Astor family are declining with each generation.

The family founder, John Jacob Astor, undoubtedly rose from humble origins and made his fortune with just a dozen furs. He was a business hero with an extremely keen sense of the market and great ability.

Although the current helmsman, William Backhaus Astor, is not as capable as the first founder, he is still very qualified as a second-generation maintainer.

Through meticulous financial management and prudent real estate investment, Backhouse expanded the family's business from the fur trade to the gleaming skyscrapers in downtown New York, successfully completing the transformation and consolidating the Astor family's foundation. Although Backhouse is not as aggressive as his father, he is also a business elite who is more than capable of maintaining the status quo.

By the third generation of the family, the abilities and performance of family members were mediocre.

What the third generation of the Astor family has to do is mainly to transform the family's wealth into social influence. They are obsessed with designing private libraries, building elegant art galleries, and establishing charitable foundations to pave the way for future generations.

To put it bluntly, it means using money to buy influence, maintain social networks, and build a personal image.

The person in front of Liang Yao is the third generation of the Astor family, William Backhouse Astor Jr.

This Astor was not well-known in the Astor family, but his son John Jacob Astor was more famous.

The son of William Backhaus Astor Jr. married into the Roosevelt family, a traditional political family. This was the most successful political investment of the Astor family.

"Sir, we are not military personnel. We hope you can be a gentleman and let us go back to the East." Astor tried to pretend to be neither humble nor arrogant, and said the weakest words in a tone that he thought was tough.

"Not a military personnel?" Liang Yao sneered and retorted.

“Mr. Astor, your personal armed bodyguards alone number over a hundred people. Can you guarantee that these armed personnel have not participated in any military operations against our army in Omaha?

Besides, you also donated a lot of money to the First Mercenary Corps, right? The new British guns are not cheap, and the wages of the mercenaries are not low either."

It has been confirmed that Aster was accompanied by hundreds of armed bodyguards, and these bodyguards are now being held in prisoner-of-war camps for labor reform.

As for the Astor family funding the mercenary group to participate in the civil war, that was just his guess.

Although Brannan had money, he had no roots in the East.

To form a private armed force of more than 7,000 people in the East, even in such a special period as now, is not something that can be done just by having money.

The only people in the East who had personal grudges against Liang Yao were the second- and third-generation Eastern rich people who were driven out of California by him during the California Gold Rush.

They are the only ones who have the motivation to fund private armed forces to retaliate against him.

If it was a pure political show, the Eastern Front was located in the core ruling area of ​​the United States, where it would have a higher exposure, so the show should also be chosen on the Eastern Front.

"Don't slander me, I didn't!" Astor's expression became obviously panicked, and he quickly denied it.

"I have captured a lot of prisoners from the mercenary group in North Kansas, including some high-ranking officers. How about asking them to come and confront you face to face?" Liang Yao swept a cold gaze over the Northern Federal congressmen who had already lost their composure.

"Aster, I am so polite to you because your father and I are business partners. I allow you to still live a decent life in Omaha and not send you to a prisoner-of-war camp to keep company with the prisoners."

In the first half of the sentence, Liang Yao was trying to deceive Astor.

He had already ordered that the prisoners from the Maine Brigade and the 103st Mercenary Regiment not be taken away. All the prisoners captured by the Guangxi Regiment and the 3rd Regiment of the rd Brigade were executed on the banks of the Kansas River, without sparing a single one.

The second half of the sentence is the truth. He and Astor Jr.'s father, Astor Sr., also known as Backhouse, are indeed business partners.

They have commercial cooperation on some real estate projects in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, New Orleans and other places.

After all, Astor was just a kid from an aristocratic family who was born with a diamond spoon in his mouth. He had never experienced any great storms, and his psychological quality was worrying.

After being tricked by Liang Yao, he was immediately at a loss as to what to do and truly believed that Liang Yao already had evidence that he was funding mercenaries.

"For the sake of my father, I beg you to be merciful and let us go. Our Astor family will definitely remember your kindness!" Astor brought up his father Backhouse and begged Liang Yao to let him go.

"As long as you write a letter asking your father to pay me some compensation to support my soldiers who died in northern Kansas, I will naturally forgive you and let you go back for your father's sake," Liang Yao said.

Sending these congressmen back to the Northern Federation would be more effective than keeping them here.

In the Northern Union, these people were the all-powerful congressional masters who had the power to veto bills submitted by the Lincoln administration.

These people may cause some trouble to Lincoln after they return.

But to him, these were nothing more than prisoners, and had no other purpose except wasting food.

"I'll write it! I'll write it!" Astor agreed hurriedly, fearing that Liang Yao would go back on his word if he agreed a second later.

"How much do you want in ransom? No, how much in compensation?"

"Your family's compensation is 50 Republic dollars. Chase will tell you how much the others will have to pay in a while." Liang Yao gave the amount of compensation that the Astor family had to pay.

In fact, with the financial resources of the Astor family, let alone 50 Republic dollars, even one or two million Republic dollars can be afforded by the wealthy Backhouse.

But considering that Backhouse has three legitimate children, Astor in front of him is just one of them, and he is neither the eldest son nor the most promising heir of Backhouse.

If the price is too high, Backhouse may not accept it.

Normally, the father would try every possible means to rescue his son.

But Backhouse was a notoriously stingy businessman who was good at calculating gains and losses. One of his children, who was not very promising, might not be as important to Backhouse as the family property.

Such a person's decision cannot be inferred using normal thinking.

Astor is gullible and deceitful, but his father Backhouse is not so easily fooled.

After weighing the pros and cons, Liang Yao finally offered a compensation amount that was neither too high nor too low for the Astor family and that was easier for Backhouse to accept.

(End of this chapter)