Wild North America 1846

Chapter 136 New Development

Li Cha spent a few days going deep into Grape Valley, visited Sunshine City, Moon City, and Calabash Town, put forward many opinions on economic development and urban construction, and arranged to start widening the road along the river immediately.

A series of fast-growing towns in the Grape Valley are all built along the river. The road along the river originally paved with stone slabs is about 6.5 meters wide, which can accommodate two carriages in parallel.

In Sidaoling Town, where the industry is relatively developed and the population is relatively large, there are frequent congestion of carriages.

Richard considered that the area might develop into a town cluster with a population of 50 or more in the future, and the only main road along the river might become a traffic bottleneck, so it must be widened to a high standard.

The new standard is that the road is 36 meters wide, with street trees planted on both sides, and a green island with a width of about 4.5 meters is set in the middle of the road.

The new road was also paved with stone slabs, and the sewer facilities were excavated in advance within the town. The Correctional Services Department mobilized more than 4700 Indian convicts to complete the construction within a time limit of one and a half years.

From Shanhaiguan to the depths of Grape Valley
The total length of this riverside avenue is about 143 kilometers. After completion, it will become the main artery of grape valley transportation, connecting various roads in the town.

In the process of building the avenue along the river, the Royal Police Station is responsible for all the buildings that need to be demolished along the way. According to the principle of twice the land area of ​​compensation, the nearby homestead is planned.

There must be no compensation money, and it would be nice to be able to give land, and governance is so simple and rude.

The Chinese immigrants who used to live under the dark feudal rule for a long time, although proud now, have no courage to confront the kingdom. After receiving the demolition order, they immediately do it themselves, obediently like a little sheep.

In this way, at least the dismantled building materials can be reused, and it needs to be rebuilt in different places.

the next few days
Richard issued royal decrees one after another, such as the rule that pedestrians and carriages drive on the right, and San Francisco was renamed Chang'an, which will come into effect from now on.Approved the promulgation of the "Commercial Tax Law", "Datang Kingdom Import Tax Law", "National Compulsory Military Service Law", "Datang Kingdom National Five-Year Education Law", etc., and implemented a number of vigorous and resolute policies.

Chang'an (San Francisco)
After a year and a half of development, the largest city in California has a total population of nearly 10. Various exotic 3-4-story or 5-story buildings have sprung up, and Chinese signs and shops along the street can be seen everywhere. , prospered day by day.

in city buildings

You can often see Chinese-style buildings with flying eaves and brackets. This is a new architectural culture developed by integrating the characteristics of Western-style masonry buildings. The appearance has strong Chinese characteristics.

Cornice brackets, grille doors and windows, Chinese plaques, huge brass door nails, and unique blue tiles and white walls.

But inside

The layout of the rooms has tended to be Western-style, with study rooms, bathrooms, toilets and kitchens specially set up, decorated with curtains and tablecloths, making living more convenient and comfortable.

Due to the influx of Chinese immigrants, the population structure of Chang'an (San Francisco) has undergone a qualitative change. There are short-haired, black-eyed, yellow-skinned orientals everywhere, Chaoshan dialect, Zhangzhou dialect, Jiangsu-Zhejiang dialect, Jiaodong Peninsula dialect can be heard everywhere, but there are far fewer Mexicans and whites wearing big straw hats.

Chinese accounted for more than 85% of the entire urban population, and those who were well-dressed and walked with their heads held high were old immigrants.With a shy expression on his face, it was the new immigrants who looked around in amazement.

The friendly and friendly environment of the Tang Kingdom to the Chinese made the Chinese immigrants here completely burst out with entrepreneurial passion, whether in business, trade or in the field of industry, they have become the leading force.

say something bad
Chinese immigrants who have been influenced by thousands of years of history are able to get rid of those rough American cowboys a few streets in terms of business entrepreneurship and dealing with people, which is not at the same level at all.

These Chinese immigrants who are determined and dare to go overseas alone to start a business are all outstanding locals who have some courage, some ability, and outstanding personalities.

It's true that three sticks can't make a boring fart, and honest farmers who look left and right when they leave the village rarely can be hard-hearted and travel thousands of miles to foreign countries to develop overseas.

Many early Chinese immigrants walked on the street in bright clothes, followed by pregnant Caucasian women and Indian maids. Going in and out of restaurants and grocery stores has become a familiar scene on the street.

In Datang Kingdom

These white women are especially popular, the lowest starting price has been as high as 1600 US dollars, and the high one even exceeds 5000 US dollars, and they are very sought-after.

The tens of thousands of women who came back from the looting at the beginning of the year earned more than 4600 million US dollars in direct income, which has covered all the military expenditures of the Tang Kingdom so far and the huge cost of building the Denver Castle, and there is still a lot of surplus.

This also allowed the Tang royal family to make a fortune. A large sum of money was invested in education and military reserve training, in the construction of coastal docks and fortresses, in the construction of new Pacific railway lines, and in the purchase of advanced machinery and equipment.

Before this
The Americas and Gold Panning Company has always been the main source of funds for the Datang Kingdom. By the end of October this year, the American River Basin had produced a total of 10 million ounces of gold, and the company accounted for 344/1 of it.

Excluding miscellaneous and various management expenses, as well as the large-scale construction of various municipal buildings, roads and sewer culverts, bridges, housing buildings and streets in Shanghewan City and Xiahewan City, there is still 83 ounces of gold left, worth more than 1670 million US dollars (The release of Tang Yuan is under preparation and will take some time).

In addition to the 32% heavy mineral tax imposed by the Datang Kingdom government on this part of the funds, the rest is the interests of shareholders.

The shareholder's equity of high-level bribes in the British high society is the proportion of net income after deducting various expenses and taxes.

As the major shareholder, Richard used this part of the proceeds to invest in the purchase of factory equipment, the construction of Chang'an and Los Angeles fortresses, and the construction of docks and warehouses, generating a steady stream of benefits.

Today, under the name of the royal family, there are more than a dozen large-scale enterprises that have taken shape, including the American River Gold Rush Company, Sequoia Bank, Kingdom Harbor Company, Consolidated Railroad Company, Colt Arms Manufacturing Company, General Heavy Industries Holdings (holding steel plant) , iron ore and coal mines, shipyards and other heavy industrial enterprises), Grape Valley Light Industry Company (holding textile, clothing, food, wine and other light industrial enterprises), Royal Charity Education Fund, Datang Kingdom Pacific Shipping Company, California College Preparatory Office, etc. , forming a system with tentacles all over the kingdom.

Development in the past two years
The Tang Kingdom is showing more and more prosperity. The newly-built Pacific Railway starts from Los Angeles, passes through Chang’an in the north, and arrives in Sacramento. Then the route continues north to Portland, and then continues north to Seattle. Finally arrived at the shore across the sea from Vancouver Island.

Going by sea, it is 2060 kilometers from Los Angeles to Vancouver Island.

However, this Pacific Railway winds through many cities along the way, crossing the mountains and lakes in the north. The total length of the railway is 2520 kilometers. The geographical environment along the way is complex, and the construction difficulty is far more than that of the Western Railway.

The project of the Pacific Railway is divided into two phases. The first phase is built from Los Angeles to Sacramento, with a total length of 1 kilometers. It is mainly built along the gentle plains of the Central Valley to avoid the Pacific Mountains along the coastline.

The terrain of the entire California province is like an elongated pizza, with the continuous Sierra Nevada Mountains on the east side, the Pacific Mountains along the coastline on the west side, and a large flat central valley in the middle.

Such a geographical environment makes the climate in California as warm and moist as spring, with few severe heat and cold and hurricane disasters. The land in the Central Valley is fertile and the streams are criss-crossing.

This also led to the need to build as many as 277 railway bridges and nearly 300 various water culverts in the first phase of the Pacific Railway. The construction volume is more than twice that of the Western Railway.

Therefore, the planned construction period of the first phase of the Pacific Railway is three years. The expert group led by British railway engineer George Hamilton is responsible for the design of bridges along the way. The investment is as high as more than 1 million US dollars, which is absolutely related to the overall development of the national economy. Buckle heavyweight projects.

also so far
In addition to the investment in the construction of the Denver fort, it is the most expensive construction project.

Along with the project is the Rim Pacific Highway, which has a standard width of 22 meters, with street trees, milestones, rammed earth subgrades, and gravel roads on both sides. The total construction cost is 42 US dollars.

Richard believes
With the successive completion of highway and railway projects, a series of star cities will rise along the Pacific coastline, dazzlingly embellishing the territory of the Datang Kingdom, and becoming a continuous driving force for sustainable development.

Chang'an (San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco) Bay Area
Standing by the freight wharf under construction, under the blue sky and white clouds, Li Cha could see the tall fortress building in the distance. He squinted his eyes and observed it carefully, and the accompanying staff quickly introduced;

"To Your Majesty;

There is the Bay Area Fortress built according to the plan. It is located on the ruins of the fort built by the Spaniards in the 18th century. It was built according to the design drawings of the British, and most of it has been completed.

The completion of the fortress will cover the mouth of the entire bay area with coastal heavy artillery, creating a strong coastal defense fortress to resist possible US naval invasions.

At present, the 10 British 150-pound coastal heavy guns and 16 80-pound coastal heavy guns we ordered are all being produced in British factories and are expected to be transported to the fortress in June next year.

A total of 40 British-style 32-pound coastal defense artillery produced under license by the Teerte Arms Company were ordered, mainly to supplement the firepower gap of the powerful British-style imported artillery.

These heavy artillery mentioned above will be successively equipped with Chang'an and Los Angeles Coastal Forts. By then, both cities will have strong coastal defense capabilities, enough to make the US Navy daunting. "

"Well, you did a good job." Li Cha nodded.

If the U.S. Navy wanted to attack the cities on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean of the Tang Kingdom, they had to go south from the Gulf of Mexico around Cape Horn, and then go all the way north to reach the west coast of North America.

With the level of sailing battleships currently equipped by the U.S. Navy, it will take at least 6 months or more, and it will face a dangerous situation where there will be no supplies.

This is because there is a British squadron stationed in Central America. With the urgency of the British, as long as they have an excuse not to participate in the North American War, they can refuse the logistics supply of the US fleet.

coastal areas of north america
On the long east coast of the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles to Vancouver, the U.S. military does not have a foothold that can provide fleet supplies for transoceanic expeditions.

The only possibility is Mexico, but that's highly unlikely.

The Mexicans who have just been beaten badly will not agree to join the enemy even if they are killed. The local people in Mexico are extremely hostile to the Americans. This means that the US Navy expeditionary fleet is facing huge risks, and the possibility is extremely small.

Although the possibility is small, it has to be guarded against.

(End of this chapter)