Chapter 111: Telegram

In the telegraph room of Tingtao Garden, the ticking sound of telegraphs was endless.

The telegraph operator that Liang Yao had recruited from the First Telegraph Office in the East was skillfully operating the electromagnetic telegraph machine and sending the first telegram to the American Telegraph Office branch in the Sacramento area.

After the telegram was sent, the operator nervously waited for the reply from the other side. Soon after, a sound came from the telegraph machine.

The Sacramento branch successfully received their telegram and replied to them!

The operator hurriedly decrypted the telegram, and then stood up and handed the decrypted and translated telegram to Liang Yao.

"Sir, long live California!"

This was the first time that electricity was connected between San Francisco and Sacramento!

"Long live California!"

In the telegraph room, California dignitaries who were eagerly waiting for California's first inter-city telegram couldn't help but shout out this telegram.

Their faces were filled with happy and confident smiles.

At this time, six years had passed since Samuel Morse, the father of the telegraph, sent the first telegram from Congress to Baltimore in 1844: What a miracle God has created!

In just less than six years, the length of telegraph lines laid in the United States has exceeded 14,000 miles, and there are 20 telegraph offices.

However, due to the high cost of laying telegraph lines, the average cost of laying telegraph lines per mile is as high as $500. If the telegraph lines have to cross mountains and rivers, the cost of laying will be even higher.

Therefore, most of these telegraph lines and telegraph offices are concentrated in the eastern region with developed economy and strong financial resources.

In order to lay the telegraph line between San Francisco and Sacramento, Liang Yao spent a full $65,000. Including the telegraph lines laid to military fortresses, Liang Yao’s spending on laying telegraph lines has exceeded $70,000.

After this storm is over, he will also lay a telegraph line between San Francisco and San Francisco.

With the telegraph, Liang Yao could issue orders to the military fortress in his own manor, and at the same time receive information from the Sacramento area in the fastest time.

"The legendary wind-hearing ears are just like this."

The impact of the telegraph on Deng Yan was greater than that of the steamship. When he was in Guangdong, Deng Yan could at least see the British steamship, so Deng Yan was not very unfamiliar with steamships, but this new thing, the telegraph, was the first time he saw it.

He thought that this machine that could immediately receive information from hundreds of miles away was very magical.

"If there is such a thing, can't you plan and command thousands of troops in the telegraph room and win thousands of miles away?"

Deng Yan's first reaction was to apply the telegraph to the military, which may be related to his military background.

"That depends on the person, and it may also bury millions of troops in the telegraph room."

Liang Yao left the telegraph room and walked back to the study. He glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall and asked Deng Yan.

"Brothers Wen Yao and Wen Shun haven't returned from Los Angeles yet?"

Soon after the establishment of the Loyalty Society, Deng Wen Yao and Deng Wen Shun were sent to Los Angeles by him to run Los Angeles.

Now Colonel Mason is leading half of the regiment northward and will inevitably pass through Los Angeles.

For safety reasons, Liang Yao had already sent someone to inform Deng Wen Yao and Deng Wen Shun last month to take the local residents, especially the Chinese residents, to San Francisco to avoid war.

The military discipline of American soldiers in this era was worse than that of later generations, especially Colonel Mason had a captain named William Tecunam Sherman under his command.

This man was the notorious general in the North during the Civil War.

The Germans like to name their tanks and armored vehicles after animals, especially cats, while Americans like to name their tanks and armored vehicles after their leaders. Sherman also won this honor. The M4 tank known as the Ronson lighter during World War II was named after him.

This man was extremely murderous. During the Civil War, he carried out an indiscriminate massacre in Atlanta and burned down the southern city.

Wherever Sherman passed, he left no one alive. His atrocities were not limited to Atlanta. As long as he passed by, whether it was a military fortress or a civilian settlement, he could not escape his murderous hands.

In Mississippi, the hometown of Confederate President Davis, more than 90% of the towns and plantations were burned down by Sherman, and more than half of the young and middle-aged people died under Sherman's butcher knife.

Sherman's massacre made Mississippi a famous poor state in the United States after the war, and it took a whole century to recover.

And Sherman's bloodthirsty nature had already begun to show signs during the Mexican-American War.

Sartre told Liang Yao that during the Mexican-American War, because the Mexican army retreated too quickly, Sherman could not catch up with the Mexican army. In a rage, Sherman allowed his soldiers to massacre the Mexican village to vent his anger, and burned the village afterwards to destroy the evidence.

Liang Yao's base camp is in San Francisco and Sacramento, and he can't send troops to garrison Los Angeles.

Moreover, he has not yet developed the oil in the Los Angeles area, and there is no high-value industry in Los Angeles that is worth his garrison.

But for the safety of local residents, Liang Yao decided to send local residents, especially Chinese residents, back to San Francisco for resettlement.

Anyway, there are not many residents in Los Angeles. Even if they all come to San Francisco, Liang Yao has the ability to resettle more than a thousand residents in Los Angeles.

"Wen Yao just brought more than 500 people from Los Angeles to Jinshan this morning." Deng Yan said.

"Wen Shun hasn't come back yet?" Liang Yao couldn't help but frowned when he heard this.

"Wen Shun is a stubborn kid. He said he was the mayor of Los Angeles and was responsible for the people of Los Angeles. He insisted on staying to persuade the people from Los Angeles who didn't want to come to Jinshan to come to Jinshan." Deng Yan was full of worries about this. He was very worried about Deng Wen Shun's safety.

"Have all the Chinese residents returned with Wen Yao?" Liang Yao continued to ask.

"Except Wen Shun and a dozen members of the Loyalty Society, all the Chinese residents have returned. Those who are unwilling to leave Los Angeles are basically local white people." Deng Yan said.

"This troublesome guy!" Liang Yao sighed, "Send someone to send a letter to Wenshun immediately, telling him that he has fulfilled his responsibilities. If the white people who refuse to listen to advice and leave are left to fend for themselves in Los Angeles, Mason's subordinates are not easy to deal with. Don't let yourself get killed in Los Angeles."

After the War Department and the Army Department appointed Liang Yao as the sheriff of California and the head of the infantry regiment, they actually handed over the defense task of the Canada-Mexico border to Liang Yao.

Mason shifted the focus of defense to the southwest of New Mexico.

But soon, Mason received four letters from the president, Congress, the War Department, and the Army Department in succession, which could also be said to be orders.

They asked Mason to immediately send half a regiment to San Francisco and Sacramento to ensure that Congress could successfully recover the land in California.

Faced with these four letters with different wordings, Mason felt very confused.

The president and the War Department asked Mason to treat the local gentry's armed forces with a relatively gentle attitude and prohibited him from conflicting with the local armed forces, otherwise he would be responsible for provoking the American Civil War.

This made Mason want to cry but he had no tears. He was just a small colonel. How could he take the responsibility of provoking a civil war?

Besides, it was your Congress, not Mason, who had conflicts with the California authorities.

Congress and the Army Department asked Mason to treat the local gentry and armed forces with a very tough attitude, and clearly instructed him to use all means to eliminate the local gentry and merchants who opposed Congress.

After reading the four letters, Mason felt like ten thousand alpacas were running through his heart, and he didn't know what to do for a while.

However, at least one thing was consistent in the four letters, that is, they ordered him to go to San Francisco and Sacramento.

As for what to do after arriving in San Francisco and Sacramento, Mason could only take it one step at a time.

Perhaps he would receive new orders after arriving there.