Wild North America 1846

Chapter 58 Only the strong can convince the crowd

The old Kahn knelt down and swore allegiance to Richard with the etiquette of the traditional Prussian Junker military nobles.

Overjoyed, Li Cha ordered a banquet to celebrate.

The cavalry sent people back temporarily, and drove a cow and five sheep to the camp of Kahn's family, along with several captains and cooks of the Datang Club.

They brought a cartful of onions, potatoes, turnips, milk, honey, and a dozen sacks of flour, as well as two large barrels of beer and a little Scotch, for a grand feast.

After a brief lunch, everyone was busy killing cattle and sheep.

Everyone helped, and the Kahn camp was filled with a strong cheerful atmosphere. Some men who were still panning for gold by the river were no longer thinking about the pans in their hands, but were looking forward to the sumptuous bonfire dinner at night.

A delicious meal has an unparalleled appeal to gold diggers.

Although there are many wild animals along American rivers, especially hares and pheasants, ordinary gold diggers have no time to hunt and do not have the skills of hunters. They most often eat dry biscuits, beans and soup, which can only maintain the basics of survival. need.

The driving force that supports the gold diggers to persevere in this difficult environment is the dream of gold mining that will one day flourish.

The Kahn family is a powerful family among the gold diggers. There are more than a hundred men, women, children, relatives and friends, and more than a dozen carriages. They occupy a small river bend with rich gold resources. One side of the river.

Their daily accommodation is mainly in horse-drawn carriages, and relying on these mobile carriages to build wooden sheds, forming a simple camp.

Women, children and the elderly lived in carriages, while men huddled together in a wooden shed on one side, with some hay on the beds and wrapped in blankets to sleep.

Women raise some chickens and ducks on weekdays, and they go deep into the forest to pick mushrooms, fungus, nuts and wild onions, bake bread, and help pick gold sand. Men and women work together, and their lives are slightly better than ordinary gold diggers, but only That's all.

The men of the Kahn family also use frying pans when panning for gold, and the efficiency is not higher than others, but they occupy the creek with rich gold resources, and the harvest will be higher.

But in the face of the astonishing prices in San Francisco, the harvest from the gold rush is like sand flowing from the fingers, and most of it is consumed invisibly.

Two large wooden barrels of poorly brewed beer, weighing about 250 pounds, worth 25 ounces of gold, a 20-pound bag of flour, worth 3 ounces of gold, and milk, honey and tea are expensive, not to mention beef and mutton.

Therefore, although the Kahn family has a large population and great strength, their daily consumption is also high. At least 4 to 5 bags of flour must be consumed every day to fill the stomachs of adults and children.

Beer, honey, and beef and mutton were rare luxuries. When the carriages transporting the goods arrived, the whole camp suddenly became noisy and lively.

Not only the children surrounded the carriage, watching the milk and honey saliva dripping out.

Even those men panning for gold by the river couldn't help but put down their work and came up to them. Seeing the two barrels full of beer, they looked very excited. They couldn't help singing traditional Germanic folk songs and jumped up and down.

Looking at the festive scene in front of him, a smile appeared on the corner of Li Cha's mouth, who was usually aloof. He turned to look at the 16 men standing in front of him, the oldest was 36 years old, and the youngest was only 14 years old. Kahn's nephew.

The nephews of the Kahn family all have distinctive Germanic features, blond hair, blue eyes, tall and strong stature. According to the tradition of Junker military aristocrats, they usually receive training in military skills such as horseback riding and fencing. They are skilled in using guns and are qualified cavalrymen.

Li Cha is currently extremely short of manpower, and of course he will not let the guards of the Cavalier Kahn family go unused. After asking one by one, he assigned the 16 people with reference to the old Kahn's opinion.

Several older nephews worked steadily, and their heads were a little rigid, so they arranged to work in the American River Gold Rush Company, some in the cavalry patrol team, some in the Sequoia Bank, and some served as the security team leader of Shanghewan Village. Leading the cavalry squad formed by the children of the Kahn family.

Seven people under the age of 30 and over the age of 25 were assigned to serve in the cavalry or musketeers. They had a relatively solid military foundation and led the recruited white soldiers, who also belonged to the military forces under the Datang Association.

Li Cha also selected Kahn's sixth son James Kahn, seventh son Stephen Kahn, and eighth Mark Kahn to fill his personal guards, as well as Mandelheim Kahn and Schlieffen Kahn. Two nephews, a total of 5 people.

Among the five people, James Kahn is the oldest at 5 years old and was appointed as the vice-captain of the Guards. Mark Kahn and Schlieffen Kahn are both 24 years old. Richard took these two with him as his own soldiers. Get ready to teach yourself.

After all, they are young people, so they are more malleable.

After arranging some matters, Li Cha turned his face and said; "Kan, your family has been panning for gold by the American River for more than a year, and you have some savings. I will leave three for you in Shanghewan Village. The place where the group is organized is close to the commercial street, and the construction is up to you."

"Thank you, sir, for taking care of me. The Kahn family is very grateful."

"You're welcome, the so-called living in peace can make you happy. Your family has so many people, and you can help each other to build the house quickly. The officers of the Datang Society buy materials at the hydraulic sawmill not only at a discounted price, but also in priority supply. This is also a benefit!"

"Sir, the Kahn family still has some savings, so I plan to either not build a house, or build a traditional Germanic-style house. I have been traveling for most of my life. I want a stable home. Shanghewan Village is not bad."

"Oh...then this project is not a small one." Li Cha knows that traditional German buildings are mostly made of mountain stones, which are strong and durable, with unique Germanic characteristics, and expensive Portland cement is used, which is very expensive.

He thought about it, nodded and said, "In this case, I will assign you 15 convicts to help the Kahn family build their homes. There are only more than 100 convicts, and most of them are used in commercial street buildings and Sequoia Bank construction sites. , not many can be drawn out.”

"Thank you sir, I would like to express my sincerest thanks."

"But... Portland cement is not easy to get. Forget it, if you can't do it, you can order a set of cement plant equipment from Europe. Anyway, it will be used for the construction of new towns in the future. It can be delivered in three months, almost Production will start at the end of the year. During this period, you can accumulate enough stone, wood, and sharpening knives will not miss woodcutters!"

After thinking about it for a while, Li Cha made a decision, planning to place an order with the British when he returned.

One set of rotary kiln with specifications of 1.85×32 meters by British Colface Company, with a daily output of 1.7 tons of Portland cement clinker and 230 barrels of cement per day, which is about 170 tons based on 39 kg per barrel.

Such production capacity has been able to meet the current needs of new towns.

A complete set of Portland cement factory equipment produced by Colface Company is worth about 1.4 pounds, or about 7 to 8 U.S. dollars. When it is shipped to the west coast of North America, plus installation and technical personnel debugging production costs, the price doubles again. That's like $15.

Measured by gold, it is worth 7500 ounces of gold, and Datang will be able to afford this scale of investment.

Li Cha treated the Kahn family well and entrusted him with important responsibilities, which aroused the jealousy of all the captains around him. Why did these ghosts allow the young master to treat him so favorably?

mid 19th century
The traditional Chinese have experienced more than 200 years of enslavement in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the feudal ideology of superiority and inferiority is serious. Seeing these ghosts being favored, the captains of the Datang Club are full of dissatisfaction.

Captain Liu Wu met with Zheng Laosi, Duan Debiao, Gao Shiheng, Wu Degao and others in private, showing deep dissatisfaction with each other, and wanted to compete.

The Gunners captains George Rabiot and Embiid Rabiot standing aside were automatically ignored, in the eyes of these Chinese captains;

White ghosts are all the same.

actually not
Georges Rabiot and Embiid Rabiot are pure French, they still have the pride of Napoleon's time in their hearts. They speak French, eat elegant French meals, and look down on the barbaric Germans at all. .

The French and the German kingdoms have always been old enemies in the struggle for European hegemony. The war between the two sides has lasted for hundreds of years. The bloody feud can not be finished for three days and three nights, and two people can't urinate in the same pot.

If it weren't for this North American wilderness, which is different from other places, the two sides would have beaten their heads to pieces.

"Young master, the humble ones have the liberty to ask. I want to try the Kahn family. Please allow me." Liu Wu couldn't help it anymore, clasped his fists with both hands, and knelt down on one knee to ask for instructions loudly.

Following behind Liu Wu, the other Chinese captains also knelt on one knee, cupped their fists and said, "We also have this intention, please master."

They spoke Chinese, neither the Germans nor the French could understand, so they could only look at Li Cha suspiciously, implying a question.

Li Cha smiled slightly, and explained the meaning of the Chinese captains.

This really poked a hornet's nest. The young man of the Kahn family was instantly irritated, and his emotions were ignited like a flame. "Boom", like a group of emotional gorillas vowing to fight.

Even the old Kahn's face turned red, he put one hand on his chest, bowed solemnly and said, "Your loyal knight Kahn requests to fight, we will show our bravery with blood and swords, and safeguard the honor of knights."

In this case, the fanatical fighting emotions have been completely ignited and cannot be suppressed.

Li Cha also intends to let the two sides compete, firstly to consider everyone's combat level, and secondly to facilitate integration.

As for the army, only the strong can conquer the masses.

(End of this chapter)