1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 732 Michigan Upper Peninsula

"It was the 103rd Brigade that took São Paulo, ahem. As for Madison City, it was an immigrant group from Anhui." Elvis glanced at Liang Shaoyu who was beside Liang Yao and said embarrassedly.

The 103rd Brigade's capture of St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, can only be considered a balance of merits and demerits, and cannot be considered a remarkable achievement.

It was the first time since the war that a group of immigrants captured a state capital, a medium-sized state at that.

"Chairman Liang, you have quite a few capable people under your command?" Liang Yao asked in surprise, "Were the Anhui immigrants captured in Madison City armed by the Immigration Committee?"

Liang Shaoyu is the chairman of the Immigration Committee. In public, Liang Yao is used to addressing him by his position, and only in private does he call him Fourth Uncle.

No matter how weak the Northern Army was, it was still a modern professional and semi-professional army. It was indeed a pleasant surprise that a group of immigrants could capture the capital of Wisconsin.

The Immigration Committee has its own armed forces, but these are public security police forces, and their combat effectiveness is slightly inferior to that of the second-line militia. However, they can barely be considered military personnel.

The first thing Liang Yao thought of was the city of Madison, which was captured by the armed forces of the Immigration Committee.

"Although the armed forces of the Immigration Committee also participated in the war, they were only helping the main force and were responsible for maintaining security and order in the occupied areas of Wisconsin." Liang Shaoyu said somewhat embarrassedly.

"It was more than 200 bold old immigrants from Chizhou Prefecture, Anhui, who took down Madison City. They were not armed forces affiliated with the Immigration Committee. If we talk about military background, there is a little bit, but not much.

This group of immigrants had participated in militia training during the Qing Dynasty. The leader of the immigrants was a former militia leader from Chizhou Prefecture, named Zhang Sixian. "

When Liang Shaoyu heard the news for the first time, he was as surprised as Liang Yao and Elvis.

He had never expected that there would be such people among these old immigrants.

"He is indeed very bold." Liang Yao said with a smile, "Let's investigate him. If he has real skills, we can train him. He can become a great help to the Immigration Committee in the future."

The people in the central border areas are tough, and there needs to be some tough Chinese among the immigrants who open up the border in order for them to take root here.

"Of course." Liang Shaoyu said with some pride.

"What did your immigration committee gain in Wisconsin this time?" Liang Yao asked Liang Shaoyu.

"We can't transport all the goods. We can't transport all the goods at all! Even my boat has been changed to a cargo ship and sent to Wisconsin to transport goods." Liang Shaoyu said, "Now I am worried not because I can't get the goods, but because I can't transport them back after I get them. We are in great need of ships."

When Liang Yao got off the boat, he noticed that there were many newly built rafts, which were unpowered flat-bottomed cargo ships, parked in the Dingbian City River Port.

These rafts must have been built by immigrants in Wisconsin using local materials and used for emergency transportation of goods.

However, these newly built rafts in Wisconsin are basically disposable, one-way cargo ships.

They could only sail downstream along the Wisconsin River upstream, dismantle the cargo on the spot after unloading, dry the wood and make it into timber for building houses.

"I have asked Jinshan Shipyard to send people to Dingbian City to open a branch to build ships." Liang Yao said.

"Even so, it will take at least two or three years for the shipyard in Dingbian City to build a steamship, right?" Liang Shaoyu muttered.

"Except for Wisconsin, the newly occupied territories are all agricultural states. There is no local industrial support. If we want to build a steamship, we can only ship parts from the west coast. However, this will cost too much and there will be no profit. The shipyard in Dingbian City will not last long.

Why don't we just take over the entire state of Wisconsin? I just came back from Wisconsin. The Wisconsin River is full of lush grass and water, and the land is fertile. It's a great place.

Although I have never been to Milwaukee, I know that it is the industrial center of Wisconsin. As long as we take Milwaukee, we can use the local industry of Milwaukee to support the industry in our central frontier."

Although Liang Shaoyu's idea of ​​taking over the entire state of Wisconsin is unrealistic, it hits the nail on the head.

Although the newly expanded territories of the American Republic appear vast, they are actually the least developed frontier agricultural states in the United States, and their level of development even lags behind many southern states.

Take shipbuilding for example. The large riverside cities in the newly expanded territories, such as Kansas City and St. Louis, were not without shipbuilding capabilities. The shipyards in both cities were able to build inland steamships.

Only the core components of the steamships, such as the steam engines, came from Chicago, Illinois.

Separated from the Northern Federation's industrial system, the shipyards in the two cities were only capable of manufacturing inland schooners.

Liang Yao wants the existing industrial facilities in the border areas to continue to exert their productivity. He must build a complete set of usable industrial systems for the border areas in a short period of time to fill the gap caused by the loss of the Northern Federation's industrial support.

"How can a snake swallow an elephant?" Liang Yao shook his head. "Whether we can take over the prime areas of Wisconsin depends on how well your Immigration Committee does the follow-up immigration work." On the way here, Chen Lisong had encouraged him to send troops to Illinois?

Doesn't he also want to take over Wisconsin and Illinois in one go?

However, the American Republic’s ruling foundation in border areas is too weak, and it does not have the ability to annex and digest second- and third-tier states such as Wisconsin and Illinois.

"Our army has entered northern Wisconsin. Should we send troops to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan? As long as we occupy the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we only need to share Lake Superior with the Canadian colonies."

When Wisconsin was mentioned, Elvis seized the opportunity to ask Liang Yao whether to send troops to Michigan.

Michigan is a lakeside state. The state consists of two peninsulas, the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula, named after their geographical locations.

Michigan's population size and industrial economic level are between Illinois and Wisconsin, making it a relatively developed industrial state.

However, Michigan's population distribution and development level are extremely uneven.

More than half of Michigan's population and more than two-thirds of its factories are located in Wayne County and Detroit County centered on Detroit in the Lower Peninsula and in surrounding agricultural areas.

More than 80% of the population is located in the Lower Peninsula.

Without a doubt, the Lower Peninsula is the heart of Michigan.

Although Michigan has a long history of development, the Upper Peninsula, with its poor transportation and harsh natural conditions, has always been an insignificant existence for the Michigan authorities and has long been neglected.

At this time, the population of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was only about 100,000, and the economic structure was mainly based on fishing and logging, supplemented by mining (copper and iron ore).

However, although the Upper Peninsula produced copper and iron, it did not have the ability to smelt copper and iron on a large scale. Except for a small portion of the ore that was transported to the Lower Peninsula, most of the ore was sold to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois.

"We can directly send troops to occupy the Upper Peninsula of Michigan." Liang Yao said after considering for a moment.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula has only half the population of Minnesota.

In addition to its relatively small size, the Union's rule over Michigan's Upper Peninsula was also shaky.

Since the founding of Michigan, most senators have come from the Lower Peninsula, and there are only three senators from the Upper Peninsula.

Ironically, these three Michigan senators who were born in the Upper Peninsula later moved to Detroit and integrated into the mainstream political circles in Michigan.

The Upper Peninsula has not only been neglected economically by the Lower Peninsula for a long time, but has also been excluded politically by the Lower Peninsula for a long time, and has almost no opportunity to have a voice in Congress.

No matter how loud the political slogans of the members of Congress in the Upper Peninsula are before the election, they must make solemn promises and assurances to the voters in the Upper Peninsula.

Once they sit in the seat of a congressman, they often choose to betray their original promises to voters and choose to submit to the congressmen from the Lower Peninsula.

This is also why few senators and representatives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula are often able to be re-elected.

Logically speaking, Americans do not have a strong sense of identification with the federal government, but a strong sense of identification with the states.

However, Michigan is an exception because it is composed of two peninsulas that are not directly connected to each other.

Lower Peninsula Michiganders have a high level of identification with Michigan, while Upper Peninsula Michiganders have a low level of identification with Michigan.

This is something that the American Republic can take advantage of.

What the Northern Confederation and the State of Michigan could not give to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the American Republic could.

Adding two Senate seats would win over the frustrated political elites of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and this deal is a good deal no matter how you look at it.

What's more, by occupying the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not only would they not have to share Lake Superior with the Northern Confederation, but they would also be able to share Lake Michigan, which they could not originally share.

The core areas of Wisconsin and Illinois are both on the shores of Lake Michigan. Given time, as long as an inland lake fleet is built on Lake Michigan, it will immediately pose a direct military threat to the core areas of the two states.

For whatever reasons, it was necessary to occupy the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

(End of this chapter)