The sun never sets in America

Chapter 52 Los Angeles through Harlem’s eyes
Los Angeles, a city that has been torn by war in the past month or so, has returned to the prosperity before the war from the chaos of the past.

Even due to the immigration of a large number of Chinese, honorary Chinese, and even Indians, the city's population has skyrocketed, from 4 to 8 before the war to the current 10, and it is expected that it will soon It became a large city with a population of [-].

Even die-hard white Mexicans have to admit it.

Under the governance of those Liujiabao pagans, Los Angeles not only did not suffer from chaos, dilapidation, and decline as they imagined, but it became more prosperous than before the war.

The harm this caused to those white Mexicans was even more terrible than being unable to defeat the Liujiapu pagans on the battlefield. After all, war is only a manifestation of some kind of violence and cannot fully represent the governance and moral standards of a civilization.

However, under the governance of Liu Jiabao, especially Liu Peng, the Los Angeles city government acted quickly and efficiently, and corruption was greatly reduced...

The better Liujiapu does, the better those Chinese pagans do, the more they mock the white Mexicans! !

squeak……

A carriage stopped outside the gates of Los Angeles, and Liujiabao Indo-European mixed-race soldiers carrying muskets immediately stepped forward to check. The leader was an Indian soldier who could speak Chinese and Spanish.

"Who is there?" The leading Indian patrol officer named Shanta knew that he had changed his surname to Sang, his tribe's surname. Ta was because when he was born, there was an Indian temple. It resembles a pagoda in Chinese culture, so he gave himself a Chinese name, Sangta.

From inside the curtain of the carriage, a hand wearing a black suit sleeve stretched out, holding a pass with a black dragon on it and the three characters of City Hall written on it.

"Hurry, let it go quickly..." The moment Santa saw the pass, he immediately gave the order to let it go. The fence outside the city gate was quickly moved by the soldiers, watching the ordinary-looking carriage leave.

"Who is here, how come they have a pass issued by the city government? Don't they only have a few adults?" Santa looked at the carriage slowly driving into Los Angeles, and thought with some doubts that the pass he just took out was When he came out, he was a little confused. After all, in his impression, this kind of pass was usually in Los Angeles. In the hands of well-known big shots in Liujiabao, even some local officials in Los Angeles only had the most ordinary ones. The official pass is only higher than the pass in the hands of ordinary people, but this is the first time he has seen such a strange situation like just now.

"By the way, his hand." Shanta suddenly remembered that the other person stretched out his hand, which seemed to be a white man's hand. Yes, it was a white man's hand.

Thinking like this, Santa became even more confused. Is it possible that there is another white official in Liujiabao with such a high status? ?
"Those in front, stop." Although he thought so in his heart, Santa was still fulfilling his duties as patrol leader and not letting any suspicious person enter Los Angeles, a city that increasingly resembled the core of California's rule.

Even some of the most stubborn and die-hard supporters of Liujiapu have to admit that Los Angeles will be the core of future California rule in terms of geography and development space. This was true in the era of the Mexican Republic, and in Liujiapu The same is true in the era of human rule.

Even within Liujiabao, there are plans to move all administrative agencies to Los Angeles, and they have also discussed internally to change the name of Los Angeles, and to establish several large cities based on other Mexican towns in California. After all, they were originally located in Under the rule of the Mexicans, only one city like Los Angeles developed in a place the size of California. The other cities still maintained the appearance of towns, both like cities and small towns...

This is definitely not a good thing for Liu Jiabao, who is committed to ruling the entire California. After all, to gain a foothold, development is necessary, and to develop, there must be a certain population concentration. The original Mexicans were on this land in California. , mainly engaged in gold mining and rough farming and animal husbandry. However, after Liu Jiabao's rule, Liu Peng promulgated many bills to promote industrial development...

Such as tax cuts for some steel plants, machinery plants, and even various factories involved in the industrial development of California, and even subsidies for some enterprises that are in the process of development... Although the subsidy funds are not large, they will benefit those who have long suffered. For the business community that was exploited by the bastard bureaucrats in Mexico, this is undoubtedly great news.

After all, judging from the policies issued by Liujiabao and the current seemingly strict laws, it was pretty good under the rule of these heretics.

Of course, this is from the bottom of their hearts. On the surface, even if they want to have a deeper connection with Liujiabao, they must also consider the feelings of the traditional Mexican white society. After all, in the eyes of some people, even if they live well under the rule of pagans, , but it’s nothing compared to losing dignity...

squeak... squeak...

The carriage drove on a road paved with stone slabs. This was the first road built by the Spanish. The Mexicans have continued to use it to this day. But now, this road belongs to the Liujiabao people.

Harlin used the civilized sword in his hand to gently open the curtain of the carriage and looked out the window.

Outside the window is the main road of Los Angeles. On both sides of the main road, there are a large number of European-style buildings, and below these buildings, there are rows of shops...

A clothing store that specializes in making clothes for people, a Western-style bakery, and a dessert shop that specializes in Spanish and Southern European-style desserts.

And on the sign of the dessert shop, it is written in Spanish that it was founded in 1790. It has a history of 50 years, only ten years less than the founding history of Los Angeles...

What caught Harlin's attention even more was that there was another sign written in square characters next to the pink sign, hanging on the wall of the store... The writing was a little crooked, but you could still read it roughly. the meaning of.

Old Love Dessert Shop, God said yes even after eating it, and he also drew two thumbs up behind this sentence.

Anyone with a discerning eye would know at a glance that this was written by a student from Liujiabao who did not understand Western culture. The handwriting is ugly, but it is very recognizable.

In the words of later generations, it is ugly and cute.

The funny thing is that this sign even became a golden sign in later generations. Lao Love Dessert Shop also became a chain dessert company all over the world through several opportunities. And the beginning of it all originated from A young man named Yu Gong made a few random strokes...

And all he got in exchange for these transactions was a pack of cookies and a few larger cream cakes.

In addition to dessert shops, clothing stores, and bakeries, there are also some shops selling needles, thread, leather shoes and other household items. This street mainly sells ordinary handicrafts and light industrial products related to people's livelihood.

And when the carriage left the main road and turned left, what we saw was another scene. There were still a lot of orange, red and white European-style buildings, but the flow of people on the street was obviously less than that of the street selling daily necessities. A lot...

They are mainly machinery repair, machinery sales, farm equipment shops, ship repair, water conservancy machinery, steam engine and other repair shops. There are signs on the doors of these repair shops with contact information and home address, in Spanish and Chinese. I wrote it again... After all, this kind of machinery maintenance work mainly involves going to the site. There are very few people staying in the shop, mainly technical workers, and the boss only appears occasionally.

After the price is negotiated, the time will be discussed and someone will be sent to the repair location to carry out the repairs.

Most repair shops are inextricably linked with the shops and factories that sell machines. After all, if the machine is broken and cannot be repaired, it is time to replace it with a new one. In today's era, a machine, even if it is A piece of water conservancy equipment is extremely expensive...after all, it requires a large number of parts and precious metals.

Judging from today's productivity, these machines are undoubtedly expensive luxuries, especially for poor countries. The price of a machine and subsequent maintenance costs may be more than hundreds or thousands of farmers in their country. The annual income is high, so industrialization is not something that ordinary countries can achieve.

Moreover, industrialization becomes increasingly difficult as it reaches its final stage. The accumulation of primitive capital is enough to deter many countries. In addition, especially after the second industrial revolution, there are more types of industries and more talents are needed. There are more, and the more resources are needed... So even in later generations, industrial countries, except for those old colonial countries, are several countries in East Asia with a Confucian cultural system, and have achieved industrialization through hard work. Many other countries are actually in the industry. In this era, countries are either resource providers, or they are pressed at the lowest end of the industrial chain. They can only pray to the countries above to leave some scraps and barely survive...

And in the [-]th century, when colonialism was popular, it would only be more cruel than in later generations.

After all, the pearl in the Queen's crown was forged with the blood and tears of so many colonial people.

Squeak... What surprised Harlin even more was that he actually saw many shops with British product logos. Most of them were printed cloths, hardware parts, and even epoch-making mechanical equipment such as steam engines imported from Britain. Although during the era of the Mexican Republic, there were steam engine factories of its own, no matter in terms of durability or quality, they could not be compared with those produced in Britain... And British industrial products, in this half-worker, half-peasant California, with a sparse industrial population, are of limited use to a certain extent. to fill the product gap in California.

After all, no matter how much those Mexican businessmen boasted, it could not be denied that the goods they produced, especially machinery, textiles and other industrial products, could not meet the needs of the entire California... It turned out to be okay, after all, there were only so many white people with spending power. No matter how much it is consumed, it will not consume much.

But things are different now. After Liu Jiabao took over California, although he implemented a hierarchical system headed by Chinese and honorary Chinese, it was generally equal in law. There was no Manchu-like situation where the banner leader did not have to pay for his life. joke.

Moreover, he also distributed land to ordinary civilians of mixed Indo-European descent. In order to level the land in California and build several decent roads, Liu Peng also used a large amount of seized property to launch a work-for-relief program. Although the distributed Most of them are physical wealth, mainly to ensure the basic stability of the region before production in California resumes. However, there is still a large amount of currency flowing to those ordinary Indo-European civilians, and when people have money, they have to consume, especially those who The squeezed Indo-Europeans who had never had a good life, a kind of retaliatory consumption, appeared in California's already small market... In the short term, it gave California's industrial and commercial market a shot in the arm. This resulted in a period of market prosperity.

After seeing this phenomenon, the Liujiabao government increased monetary replenishment and launched more work-for-relief projects.

They even deliberately transformed the original Liujiabao internal currency into the legal currency of the entire California region, and exchanged it with the Mexican silver peso that is now popular in the market according to the silver content ratio.

The approximate exchange ratio with the pound sterling remained at six to one, equivalent to one pound equaling six silver dollars.

Because Liu Yan's portrait is printed on the currency, he is also called Liu Datou.

Of course, this is a private name. The real name is Huayuan. From the name, you know that the meaning of this currency is actually the Chinese in the country and the honorary Chinese.

It also hints at the real ruling power in this area! !

Passing through this street dedicated to selling and repairing machinery, the carriage continued to move forward.

What comes into view is a fountain square. In the center of the square, stands a tall nautical statue of Columbus. The direction that the Columbus statue looks in the distance is... the Pacific Ocean! !
This is a statue built during the Spanish colonial period. It can be said that this Columbus statue has as many years of history as the city of Los Angeles.

At first, there was a debate within Liujiabao over the existence of this statue. Some people suggested destroying it directly. After all, this is evidence of white people’s colonization of America and a symbol of white people.

Opponents believe that even the Mexicans did not remove the statues erected by the Spaniards. They Liujiapu people couldn't wait to remove the statues as soon as they took over Los Angeles. Isn't this a naked statement to the outside world that they are afraid of this statue that represents white people? The statue, indirectly indicating that they were afraid of white challenges to their rule? ?

Although the situation at that time was not as severe as during the war, it also led to many officials arguing endlessly. One said they should demolish it, which is a symbol of the white colonial spirit, and the other said not to demolish it, which is an acceptance of history and the countermeasures. Tolerance of white people.

You said it was reasonable, I said it was also reasonable, and the quarrel was endless.

In the end, it was Liu Peng who made the decision not to demolish it! !
Liu Peng first believed that this size is also a cultural relic. Secondly, he believed that since the Mexicans did not demolish it, then the Liujiapu Chinese could not demolish it. Thirdly, and most importantly, to maintain the rule of the white people, After all, there are 10,000+ or ​​nearly 20 white people in California. In today's era, these people's cultural quality and personal quality are higher than those of Indians, those of Indo-European mixed race, and even some of them are higher than Chinese. , of course, there are not many of them, most of them are the white Mexican elite from the original California area.

Although these people are cunning, ostensibly obeying the rule of the Chinese in Liujiabao, secretly colluding with each other, and violating the law, they are now much more honest after Liu Peng beat them with iron fists several times.

Some smart families have even married their daughters to officers and even officials from Liujiapu, seeking marriage to ensure the safety and interests of their families.

Although Liu Peng didn't care about this, he kept a close eye on it. Once there were too many marriages, it would be easy to form new interest groups and ruling groups in California and Los Angeles. These are all led by Liu Yan and Liu Peng. The top management of Liujiabao, headed by Peng, couldn't bear it.

Therefore, when it comes to promoting certain married officers and officials, Liu Peng usually gives it a go and slows down, preferring officers and officials who have not had much contact with white Mexicans...

These were also seen by certain officials and officers and kept in mind. After facing the olive branch offered by the local white elite family in Mexico, they were able to become more clear-headed and understand the purpose of the other party's actions.

Of course, Liu Peng is not saying that marriage is completely prohibited. After all, you can control it for a while, but not for the rest of your life.

Therefore, Liu Peng mainly investigated those white Mexican families who were married. The first thing he investigated was what they did.

If it is an investment in industry, especially heavy industry and light industry related to people's livelihood, Liu Peng will carefully consider it. However, if it is some illegal and criminal business, or even side business that steps on the red line of the law to make a fortune, Liu Peng will be extra vigilant.

Although Liu Peng did not completely prohibit black industries such as pawnbroking, casinos, and brothels, he still had to set the rules and regulations.

Just like brothels, this industry is completely prohibited, which is completely unrealistic in the current California area. Therefore, Liu Peng mainly guides legal compliance, as well as whether it involves human trafficking, women trafficking, forced girls into prostitution, and other issues that disrupt social stability.

Liu Peng resolutely combats these black issues, but for other issues, as long as taxes are paid on time and legally, Liu Peng and even the Liujiapu government will turn a blind eye.

In addition, there is the casino, which has been in many industries since ancient times. Ever since humans had money and things at their disposal, this industry was born. It can be said that it has a long history.

But because of this, casinos are also places where the evils of human nature gather. Regarding these, Liujiabao mainly introduces laws to ban or even seal illegal casinos. Even if they are legal, they have to pay high taxes. It must also be subject to government supervision.

Others, like pawn shops, are also managed according to the law, rather than letting someone run wild and eventually lead to irreparable disaster...

In fact, Liu Peng himself also supported the marriage. This was also a way to maintain Liu Jiabao's rule, but everything had to be done in moderation. Once the matter was done, Liu Peng's blow would come.

So some people jokingly call Liujiapu's law, it's all about looking at it. If you don't cross the bottom line they set, you can do whatever you want. Once you cross the bottom line, what awaits you is a thunderstorm. Liu Yan and Liu Peng, the father and son, never showed mercy on these people and things... They often struck quickly, accurately and ruthlessly! !

squeak……

Harlin continued to move forward on the carriage, crossing the place just called Glory Square (formerly Columbus Square) towards the direction of the Los Angeles City Hall.

Before passing the city hall, Harlin looked at the dome-shaped Congress Hall of Los Angeles, Mexico on the side and was stunned.

Because there was no such thing as a parliament in Liujiabao, the parliament hall that once launched the siege of California Indians was abandoned. It is said that Liu Peng hoped to transform it into a stadium.

Of course, there is no follow-up so far, and there are some wild and imaginative quadrants, such as the Colosseum similar to ancient Rome, and some literati’s crazy idea, which is to transform this place into the largest library in the world, surpassing the British Library pavilion.

Judging from the news circulating in the city government, Liu Peng himself is very satisfied with this plan.

After Harlin read it, the carriage continued toward the city government where Liu Peng was located (formerly the Los Angeles Governor's Mansion).

(End of this chapter)