1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 2 Flash Hack Gun

Apart from gold panning tools, what Liang Yao wanted most was a musket for self-defense.

California at this time is the most remote place in the United States, not even a state in the United States.

The mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and it is also a gold-producing area. Naturally, there is no order in such a place, and it is an out-and-out world of the jungle.

He is now in a weak body, and he can't even deal with the few hooligans on the boat, not to mention the gold diggers from all over the world in the gold-producing area. Those who can survive to this place are basically not good people.

A musket, preferably a short gun that is convenient to carry around, will at least give him a sense of security.

It’s just that with his current financial resources, he can’t afford the price of a musket at all. For example, the brown bass musket that is about to be withdrawn from active service in the UK, the low-cost Indian monkey version of the brown bass is also priced at about 2 pounds.And he doesn't even have a pound now.
"Hello, Liang."

On Liang Yao's shoulders, the three gentlemen who were approaching were like old friends who had known each other for a long time. Not refined, but a rough and rough look.

Because Sven was more easy-going and talkative, unlike the other proud British crew members on the ship, who looked superior and looked down on people of color, Sven became the crew member Liang Yao was most familiar with during this long voyage.

Of course, it is also a tool for talking to each other to relieve boredom.

Somehow, Sven got along very well with the ordinary sailor crew on board, and the captain and mates didn't seem to like their colleague.

Sven was originally the chief mate of the Danish Asian Company on the Wurzburg merchant ship. After the Danish Asian Company, that is, the Danish East India Company, was dissolved, Sven, who was burdened with debts, came to the Great Britain Steamer Company to pay off the debts.

Could this have something to do with Sven being Danish?Or is it that Sven is in heavy debts and is afraid that Sven will borrow money from them, so he alienates Sven?
After guessing wildly, Liang Yao's eyes fell on the two flash cap guns that were less than a foot long on Sven's waist. They were really good things.

"Are you interested in it? This is a brand-new flash cap gun produced by the famous Birmingham Arsenal! I bought it from a down-and-out nobleman in Calcutta for a full forty pounds.

We're friends, and if you like it, I don't mind taking a loss for fifteen pounds. "

Sven took out a flash cap from the holster, and introduced his gun to Liang Yao like an enthusiastic salesman. He saw that this oriental boy was very interested in his gun.

"It's very new, so new that the logo and the coat of arms are worn out, and the rifling is worn out."

Liang Yao wouldn't believe that Sven, who lived so poorly that he had to drink brandy and rum with water, could spend a huge sum of forty pounds to buy a gun.But the Birmingham Arsenal logo on the gun is real.

Liang Yao would never believe that a pistol sold for forty pounds.Even if there is a premium component of a custom-made gun for an aristocrat, its value will not exceed ten pounds.Unless it is a well-known nobleman, or the former owner of this gun has a legendary experience.

Obviously, this cap gun does not have this property.

Sven thinks highly of him too. If he had fifteen pounds, why would he go all the way to California to mine?Wouldn't it be nice to go directly back to the Qing Dynasty to buy a house and buy land to accept a concubine?
"Ten pounds! Can't go any lower!"

Sven gritted his teeth and said, with a painful expression as if someone had cut a piece of flesh from him.

"To be honest, I don't even have a pound with me now." Liang Yao told the truth.

"roll!"

Sven rolled his eyes and put the gun back into the holster, turning his face faster than turning a book.

"But I can share with you a business opportunity, a business opportunity worth thousands of pounds in exchange for your gun."

Liang Yao smiled lightly, he didn't have ten pounds, but he wanted a gentle gun.

Sven, who has been walking on the sea for many years, of course does not believe that Liang Yao has any business opportunities worth tens of thousands of pounds. He just thinks that Liang Yao is bragging and doesn't take it to heart.

"It costs seven or eight cents to buy a pan from Boston, and ten cents to buy a spatula.

But in the goldfields of California, a pan can easily fetch six dollars and a shovel thirty.

Of course, if you like gold, you can even exchange it directly for an equivalent amount of gold.The most valuable thing in the gold mining area is gold, and the least valuable thing is also gold. "

Liang Yao said in a serious manner.

Gentle and skeptical, Liang Yao's ability to say the price in such detail does not seem to be talking nonsense, but the profit in it is suffocatingly high, and selling black slaves and piggies is not so profitable.

"my God!"

Sven's attitude towards Liang Yao immediately took a [-]-degree turn, but he did not easily believe Liang Yao's words. Instead, he asked Liang Yao's source of news to determine whether the news was reliable.

"I was told by my relatives that he was in California and it was he who wrote us to go to California."

This statement is half true, and it is true that the letters from the countrymen telling us that there is gold in California, as for the prices of pans and shovels, etc., he made it up.

"There are countless places where gold is found every year in the world, but how many of them are true? Only you desperate people are willing to sell their property in exchange for a boat ticket to go to the illusory gold mountain in your mouth."

Sven had heard about the discovery of gold in California for a long time, but it was only heard. Unless he saw it with his own eyes, Sven would never believe these unreliable and exaggerated rumors.

Liang Yao shrugged, feeling a little disappointed that this rude Nordic man was not as easy to fool as he imagined.

"However, based on our friendship, I'm willing to take a gamble. If you lie to me, your end will be the same as this seabird."

When Liang Yao moved to leave, Sven suddenly took out the musket from the holster, put on the cap, and pulled the trigger at the seabird hovering above his head.

With the sound of thunderous gunshots, a seabird fell into the sea, and the familiar plop came to Liang Yao's ears.

The sudden gunshot stopped Liang Yao in his tracks, his legs under the hem of his robe seemed to be still shaking, and there was a slight chill on his back.

"It's yours! I think pans, shovels, and shovels cost about as much in Panama as they do in Boston."

Sven stuffed the old musket with a hot barrel into Liang Yao's hand.The things Liang Yao mentioned were not valuable items. He was willing to take a gamble, even if he lost money, he would not lose a lot.

A few good-natured British sailors were watching the fighting of the Qing people below the deck around the cabin door, laughing jokingly from time to time, as if watching a group of monkeys fighting.

Liang Yao returned to the cabin fiercely with a musket in hand, and the backs of the Deng family's descendants had already been knocked to the ground.

Deng Yan's legs and right hand were tightly hugged by three blue-skinned ruffians, unable to move them in the narrow cabin.The still movable left hand firmly grasped Wu Daqi's braid.

Not to be outdone, Wu Daqi used all his strength to punch Deng Yan's face fiercely.

Wu Daqi hit Zheng Huan, and suddenly got a sap on his forehead with green stubble. Enduring the pain, he turned his head and was about to attack, but saw the black muzzle of the gun pointing at his head
"Third brother, no, third master, Young Master Liang, please forgive me and never dare again. I will apologize to the masters now."

Wu Daqi didn't care about Deng Yanzheng pulling his braid, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed for mercy.

The rest of the accomplices were at a loss when they saw this, and let the bruised and swollen Deng Yan break away from them.

"Shooting you to death is considered cheap. Which Xiangshan people don't know what you did in Xiangshan? You should be thrown into the sea and let the fish eat your flesh and bones!" Liang Yao was angry. road.

Deng Yan had served as a soldier, had used shotguns, and had seen the power of foreign guns. He was worried that Liang Yao would lose his temper because he was too excited. After all, they were on the ghost's boat, and they had to look at the ghost's face.It will be difficult to end if people are killed.

"Third brother, let him make an apology and spare him once."

Although he was beaten, Deng Yan still kept a calm head.

Liang Yao also happened to borrow the donkey from the slope. Although the old fox Sven gave him the gun, he didn't give him the cap and bullets, so the thing in his hand could only be used to scare people.

"Second uncle, it's their fault. You can't suffer this beating in vain. The consultation fee for the ghost doctor on the boat is not low."

Liang Yaozhong's angry voice echoed in the cabin, and he shot Wu Daqi fiercely.

"How many of our brothers pay the consultation fee, and how many of our brothers pay. It's not a thing that I, Lu Daqi, didn't control my own hands."

Lu Daqi hurriedly took out two pieces of Yingyang and a few pieces of silver taels, and at the same time urged his friends around him to take out the money. Under Lu Daqi's urging, they reluctantly scraped together some silver taels.

Liang Yao accepted it when he saw a good deal, seeing that Lu Daqi and the others had paid for it but did not force Lu Daqi and the others to a dead end, the rabbit even bit people when they were cornered.

The Chinese fight was minor, but the nature of the gun drawing was different. Soon some white sailors who watched the excitement informed Captain Frank of the situation.

"what happened?!"

The water pilot, that is, Huang Bingliang, the immigration agent, followed behind Frank's ass and sternly questioned everyone in the cabin.

"Where did you get your gun?"

Frank noticed Liang Yao's musket hidden in the hem of his clothes. Since Liang Yao knew English, Huang Bingliang no longer translated the conversation between Frank and Liang Yao.

"This is a gift from the third officer, Gentleman." Liang Yao replied in English, "It's just a gun, without a cap and bullets."

Flack's face paled when he heard the words, and he left after seeing that nothing serious had happened, leaving a few words of reprimand.He is also unwilling to meddle in matters between Chinese people.

All he cared about was how many people would make it to California alive and how much commission he could get, that's all.

After Frank left, Liang Yao pulled up the cloth curtain in the middle of the cloth cabin, and greeted Deng Yan and a few descendants of the Deng family to come to the back of the cabin.

"You guys have divided up the money. Tomorrow the foreign ship docks, and you go ashore to find a good doctor to treat your injuries."

There is a ship doctor on the Cape Town, but the ship doctor is extremely racist and white supremacist. The most common way to treat the Chinese is to hold their noses from a distance and instruct the sailors to take the sick Chinese out of the cabin and throw them into the sea.

Such a person Liang Yao did not expect him to treat these Deng family children.

Liang Yao divided the money into six parts and asked each of them to take one part.

"It's all skin trauma, no muscle or bone injury, it's not a problem."

Deng Wenyao said he was fine, but his body was very honest, and he stretched out his hand to the money.

But Deng Wenyu stopped him: "Without the third brother, I don't know how to end today's matter. The money should have the third brother's share."

Deng Yan also took it seriously, and took out three eagle coins from it: "If the third brother doesn't accept this money, we will not dare to take it from our family."

"If that's the case, then count me in."

Liang Yao didn't put on a show, and accepted the three eagles generously.

After everyone distributed the money, Deng Yan said to Liang Yao with a worried look on his face: "Wu Daqi and the others only succumbed when they saw you had foreign guns in their hands. Still have to be wary of him."

Liang Yao smiled wryly and shook his head and said, "Wu Daqi and his ilk are hard to become a great talent, so it's not worth mentioning. What I'm worried about now is not Wu Daqi, but what to do after arriving in San Francisco."

How to gain a foothold after arriving in California is what Liang Yao is most worried about now.

It's late 1849, and James Marshall first discovered a large amount of gold in the American River in January 1848, and it's been almost two years since they've lost their gold rush.

Many gold panning teams from the eastern part of the United States not only have professional gold panning knowledge, but also have more mature organizational forms and, of course, more people.How can he compete with those 49-year-old miners?
It would be a force not to be underestimated if the more than [-] Chinese laborers on board could be united and organized.

But this idea is nothing but fantasy. The composition of the Chinese on board is very complicated. In addition to Xiangshan people, there are also Guangzhou people, Chaoshan people, Zhaoqing people, Hakka people from northern Guangdong, and even a dozen Fujian people.

With his current prestige, it is tantamount to wishful thinking to unite people from different regions and clans together.

A more realistic idea is to unite these Deng family members first and gain a firm foothold in San Francisco first.

Deng Yanchang sighed: "It's rare that you can think of this level at a young age. It's getting late, go to bed early. Outsiders, your second uncle can't guarantee it, but if you condense these youngsters of the Deng family into one rope, you The second uncle can still do it."

Liang Yao also felt a little sleepy, so he stopped talking and climbed onto the hammock made of Manila canvas with his musket in his mouth.

(End of this chapter)