Chapter 59: Have You Thought About the Worst Possible Outcome?

"Mr. Liang, let's go to the bow and smoke for a while."

Out of appreciation for Liang Yao, or love for talent, Vanderbilt decided to remind this young man who didn't know how high the sky was.

The two walked to the bow, and Vanderbilt habitually took out a wrinkled cigar from his jacket pocket.

He didn't like to put cigars in exquisite cigarette boxes, but preferred to put cigars in his pocket, and only put two or three cigars at a time. Because this way he didn't have to share his cigarettes with others.

"You made the right choice to buy land, which can make a lot of money, but you bought too much. Do you know what kind of people your future buyers are?"

Vanderbilt said to Liang Yao in the tone of an experienced person.

It's a good thing to be ambitious, but it's a very bad thing not to restrain your ambition.

Vanderbilt himself suffered such a loss when he was young.

If Liang Yao only bought a small part of the land in the Sacramento gold mining area, perhaps the big tycoons in the east would give him a way out and reluctantly spend money to buy some gold-rich land.

If it was the land in the entire gold mining area, these big tycoons in the east who were used to sucking blood would never take out their pockets and use real money to buy land from Liang Yao.

"I know that they are more powerful and more ruthless than you." Liang Yao's eyes were very firm. "As long as they come, there will be no more miracles in California. The history of private gold miners and small gold mining companies getting rich overnight will become history forever."

"Money sometimes can't buy the status of the upper class. I am only ruthless to my competitors. I only want money."

Vanderbilt's status in New York was very embarrassing. His wealth did not bring him a social status that matched it.

Even the ticket to the New York elite celebrity banquet was obtained by him with great effort.

He still remembers the first time he attended a banquet. He was dressed very formally, wearing a tailcoat specially made for him, and holding a civilized cane. He even learned aristocratic etiquette to better integrate with them.

But his efforts were not respected by the celebrities. The upper class looked down on him as a country bumpkin from the bottom of their hearts, and shamed him as a rude farmer and a lowly and despicable sailor without hesitation.

After that, Vanderbilt completely figured it out. He attended the banquet just to make trouble. He made trouble at the banquet like an immature child, vented his grievances, and made trouble for those New York elites who claimed to be aristocrats.

He gave up the idea of ​​integrating into the New York celebrity circle, and instead concentrated on making money with his like-minded friends.

He also made friends with some members of Congress, but they were all low-ranking members.

Vanderbilt really got a status that matched his wealth until after the Civil War.

After the Civil War, in recognition of his support for the Union in the Civil War, Congress awarded him a gold medal.

But he also paid a great price for this. The biggest price was that during the Civil War, he sent his favorite George Washington Vanderbilt to the battlefield, and George Washington Vanderbilt never came back.

This made him suffer from self-blame for the rest of his life.

"For my suffering compatriots and for myself, I must do this. Only in this way can I gain a foothold in America.

If I don't do this, do you know what awaits those gold diggers and my compatriots? Find a job in those large gold mining companies to make a living, work 90 hours a week for a meager income, or even more. Then we will never get ahead!

Of course, I have also thought about what kind of results this will bring to me."

Liang Yao's tone was very firm. He would never give up the wealth he already had in his hands.

Although he was a person in his previous life, he had to compromise with reality for the sake of life and became a cow and horse of capitalists. In this life, he would never be a cow and horse again!

He also didn't want his compatriots to go to California with hopes and ideals just to take a boat from one hell to another.

"What do you think the worst outcome will be?" Vanderbilt asked.

"Congress does not recognize the legitimacy of my ownership of Sacramento land, and will put my land up for public bidding, and those greedy tycoons will bid for these lands with rich gold at a negligible price."

This is the worst outcome Liang Yao could think of.

"It seems that you know them very well. If it really comes to this, what are you going to do?"

Vanderbilt was very surprised by Liang Yao's answer. This is indeed the worst outcome, even to the extent of being somewhat unconstitutional.

But he believes that for the sake of gold, those tycoons may put pressure on Congress to do such a thing.

When he was in court in his early years, he personally experienced their methods, and he knew the faces of those people very well.

"I will destroy California with my own hands!" Liang Yao said loudly, "California has more gold than just Sacramento. If they insist on only targeting Sacramento and putting me to death, I will take up arms to defend my property and dignity.

What I can't get, they can't easily get. I can make California run in an orderly manner, or I can make California fall into chaos and disorder and turn California into a purgatory on earth. If they want gold, they can go to purgatory to get it!"

Liang Yao was not being alarmist. He had been secretly hoarding arms for a long time. In addition to working hard to train the 150-man legion into professional soldiers, the 680 members of the Loyalty Association were also taking turns training as paramilitary personnel. Young Chinese people are also being armed.

If he really wanted to fall out, he could at least raise an army of thousands of people.

To wipe out his private armed forces, at least two infantry regiments would have to be deployed. Colonel Griffin, who was stationed in California, only had four to five hundred men at his disposal, so there was nothing he could do for a while.

California was isolated on the western frontier, and Liang Yao had plenty of time to raze San Francisco, Sacramento and even Los Angeles to the ground while the U.S. War Department mobilized its troops.

Even if the U.S. military were stationed, he would not engage in direct battle with them. At worst, he would escape into the vast western mountainous area and become bandits, robbing homes and homes. From time to time, he would come to the gold mining area to fight in the autumn wind and disgust the Americans with the Indians.

Such high counter-insurgency costs are enough to drain the American government.

Of course, this is only a last resort. There is also a milder approach, which is to use public opinion in the east and the Texas landowners and plutocrats who also received land grants from the Mexican government to put pressure on the government.

As for whether it would be effective, he couldn't guarantee it.

"Ahem, this is just the worst result. Maybe the real situation will be better than you think."

Liang Yao's countermeasures made Vanderbilt feel numb after hearing it. I hope he just said it.

It was already late at night when we arrived in Sacramento. Although the Sacramento was traveling smoothly, everyone felt a little tired after sitting on the boat for a whole day, so they decided to rest for the night before conducting the inspection the next day.

Although it was already late at night, the Sacramento area was still very lively.

Many nearby miners have settled here, and many shops are still open late at night.

This is the place where Liang Yao made his fortune, and the city of Sacramento was planned by Liang Yao himself.

The street is wide. Although there are vendors setting up stalls on both sides of the street, it is still more than enough to accommodate four carriages traveling side by side.

What's even more valuable is that the streets of Sacramento have a complete drainage system. Although due to the lack of materials for making drainage pipes, Liang Yao can only resort to open channels for drainage.

But this at least ensures that sewage will not be discharged randomly on the streets, so the streets will be cleaner.

"It's very clean here."

Elizabeth said with some surprise that she had thought that Sacramento would have a poor sanitary environment like many small eastern cities.

Unexpectedly, she didn't even have to hold up her skirt when walking here. The hardened streets were cleaned very clean, so she didn't have to worry about getting her skirt dirty.

Since there are enough public toilets in Sacramento, you rarely see people excreting or dumping excrement on the streets at will. At most, you can see some livestock feces.

The feces of these livestock will not remain on the streets for long because, like the commercial streets in San Francisco, there are dedicated cleaning staff responsible for cleaning the streets.

"My home has arrived. The conditions here are not as good as San Francisco. You can just make do with it."

Liang Yao came to his house in Sacramento. His house in Sacramento was built in a hurry. Although it could not be said to be simple, the comfort level was far less than that of Tingtao Garden.

The walls of this house still have bullet marks from the original battle. Vanderbilt looked at these dense bullet marks and asked.

"Has there been a violent conflict here?"

"Yes, some deserters attacked here, and I almost died there. Fortunately, we miners were united enough to drive away the bandits." Liang Yao said with a relaxed look.

Vanderbilt nodded, he was a little absent-minded and seemed to be thinking about something.