Chapter 170: Japanese Branch

After negotiating with Britain and France, the large and small transport ships of Global Shipping Company hoisted coal at the port of San Francisco and shipped it to Hawaii. Google search reading

In addition to the ships carrying coal, some ships carefully hoisted the goods that had been marked with the American Jardine Matheson trademark onto the ship.

These are the Chinese native products that Liang Yao is going to ship to the east for sale. These Chinese native products are all high-quality goods purchased by Liang Yao from Chinese businessmen, used to open up the market in the eastern United States and build a good reputation for American Jardine Matheson.

Before leaving for the east, Liang Yao has one last thing to do, which is to open a branch of the Zhongyi Society in Japan to collect intelligence for him.

The branches of the Zhongyi Society have now been opened in Mexico and Oregon, providing him with a lot of intelligence.

In particular, Deng Wenyao, who travels between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, not only provided him with detailed information about the Mexican garrison in Tijuana, but also became good friends with local officers.

There are also Japanese members in the Zhongyi Society. This time Liang Yao plans to select some capable Japanese members and send them back to Japan to open a branch.

The opening of Japan would have happened even if he had not intervened. Instead of waiting for Perry to knock on Japan's door, it would be better to add fuel to the fire and gain more benefits for California and himself.

After California's industry developed, it needed a place to dump overseas goods, and Japan was one of the best places to dump goods.

There is also the problem of unreasonable population structure and imbalance between men and women in California, which seems to be solved in Japan.

"Big leader, you are looking for me?"

A tall Japanese man with a shiny bald head and a height of more than 160 cm stood in front of Liang Yao.

"Liang Sen, you will be the little leader of the Japanese branch of Zhongyihui in the future."

Liang Yao looked down at the tall Japanese man who was much shorter than him, and put a copper dragon head badge that had been prepared on Liang Sen's chest.

Liang Sen's original name was Murakuya Ichiro. Murakuya was his house number, which can be simply understood as the house number, and Ichiro was his name.

Liang Yao gave Murakuya Ichiro the name Liang Sen.

After California was established, the Bureau of Statistics conducted a detailed population statistics.

When the gold rush started, there were also three or four hundred Japanese immigrants from Hawaii in California. These Japanese had to change their "surnames" according to the house number when they moved, which made the staff of the Bureau of Statistics extremely dissatisfied.

For this reason, Liang Yao ordered these Japanese to have their own fixed names to facilitate the statistics of the Bureau of Statistics. The surnames can be chosen by themselves or with Chinese surnames.

The result is that a lot of Japanese happily followed Liang Yao's surname Liang.

In the Edo period, ordinary Japanese people were more casual in naming, and surnames were the privilege of the upper rulers. People with names and surnames in public in the Edo period were definitely not ordinary people.

Common people could only secretly use some inferior surnames in private. If they wanted to obtain the right to use surnames, they could only pay the daimyo of each domain to buy them. The more money they paid, the longer the surname could be used.

It was indeed a happy thing for these Japanese to be able to get a surname for free without spending money.

As for Japan, Japanese common people had their own names, which was after the Meiji Restoration.

Liang Sen, who wore the copper dragon head badge, felt tears welling up in his eyes. He had seen Liang Yao twice since he joined the association. One time was when Liang Yao gave surnames and names to more than a dozen Japanese members of the Zhongyi Society, and the other time was now.

Liang Sen was originally a Zhitang of the Zhongyi Society, that is, a small leader at the grassroots level of the Zhongyi Society. He wore a gold black bear badge and was the highest-ranking one among all the Japanese members.

Now he wore the dragon head badge that he dared not dream of, which made him cry uncontrollably.

"Thank you for the appreciation of the big dragon head! Liang Sen will definitely die for the big dragon head!"

Liang Sen bowed 90 degrees to Liang Yao, saying with snot and tears.

Although the copper dragon head badge is only the lowest dragon head badge, to put it bluntly, it is the lowest level among the high-level members of the Zhongyi Society, but for Liang Sen, it is a class leap, which is equivalent to a civilian suddenly becoming a samurai in Japan.

"I don't want you to die, I just want you to work hard for me. I'll ask Jardine Matheson to prepare a ship for you. You can take the Jardine Matheson merchant ship to Nagasaki as a Qing merchant." Liang Yao said lightly.

"You must do the things I tell you to do beautifully and properly. I can put on this dragon head badge for you, and I can also take it off."

"Yes! Big dragon head!"

Liang Sen subconsciously covered the badge on his chest and said.

Japan's isolationism is mainly aimed at Western white people. The exchanges with East Asian countries, such as the Qing Dynasty, Korea, and Ryukyu, are relatively normal.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to these East Asian countries, Japan is also willing to have normal exchanges with the Dutch.

The reason is also very simple. After entering Japan, the British, Spanish, and Portuguese not only traded in Japan, but also preached in Japan, built churches, and even wanted to interfere in Japan's politics, which caused panic in the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Only the Dutch were relatively honest, doing business, not preaching, and not asking about Japanese politics. Therefore, the Tokugawa Shogunate allowed the Dutch to continue trading in Japan.

The Netherlands was also the only window for Japan in the Edo period to understand the Western world.

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"Steam battleships are the future of the navy. America's influence depends not only on America's national strength, but also on the range of the U.S. Navy and the range of its guns."

At the same time, outside the port of Baltimore, Maryland, the United States, on the Mississippi steam paddle wheel wooden cruiser.

Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy looked out at the sea and said to President Fillmore who came to inspect.

"And where the steamship can go depends on where we can build the supply station."

Perry was born in a naval family in Newport, Rhode Island. He was influenced by his family since he was a child and was determined to join the U.S. Navy.

His father was a captain in the U.S. Navy, and his brother made military achievements in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, and became a well-known general in the U.S. Navy.

Perry himself was no less impressive. He joined the navy in 1809, served as the director of the shipbuilding department of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1833, and supervised the construction of the first steam battleship "Fulton" of the US Navy in 1837, and was promoted to colonel.

Only three years later, Matthew Perry was awarded the rank of brigadier general and became a hot figure in the US Navy.

Perry highly praised steam battleships and believed that steam battleships were the future of the navy. Under Perry's efforts, the "steam rate" of the US Navy has been greatly improved.

"Most of the world's excellent ports are under the control of the British. It is not easy to obtain a supply point to refuel American steamships."

Fillmore looked at the Mississippi cruiser under his feet. The full load displacement was only 1,692 tons. It could be a flagship in the US Navy's fleet, but in the British Navy, it was just an ordinary battleship.

Compared with the British and French navies, the US Navy is really too weak.

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