Chapter 371: Armed Fight
After the afternoon sun passed, the temperature dropped rapidly.
The temperature in different areas of California varies greatly. Generally speaking, Southern California is warmer than Northern California, and the plains are warmer than the mountains.
Liang Yao is now in Stockton, located in the San Joaquin River Valley in the Central Valley, which is the largest plain in California, but this is Northern California, and the coolness can still be clearly felt in the evening in mid-October.
Chen Baoliang suggested that the process warm up by the stove and then have dinner.
Liang Yao agreed to Chen Baoliang's proposal, and he just wanted to visit the school in Stockton.
After making up his mind, everyone rode to the school.
Before they took a few steps, a burst of sparse gunfire came from not far away.
"Where are the guns being fired?!" Liang Yao frowned.
The California army is under the control of Liang Yao, and the garrisons of each regiment and company are arranged by Liang Yao himself.
Liang Yao also remembers the deployment location of each unit clearly, and he is sure that he has no garrisons near Stockton. There are not even militiamen.
Liang Yao guessed that it might be the police from the Stockton Police Department who were shooting, but soon, this idea was denied by Liang Yao himself.
The California police had already replaced their police equipment. Police stations everywhere, no matter how big or small, were equipped with Sacramento version Colt revolvers specially purchased by the Police Department from the Sacramento Arsenal.
The gunshots were obviously not the sound of a pistol, but the sound of a long gun.
Judging from the sound and the rate of fire, it is likely to be a Springfield M1842 rifle, or other old-fashioned smoothbore rifles.
This outdated rifle is not even equipped by the California militia. Except for the California Infantry Regiment, Liang Yao's troops are all equipped with Walter M1851 rifles.
Although California does not ban guns and allows people to buy guns for self-defense and to guard against wild beasts that appear from time to time, there are still certain restrictions on the guns held by ordinary people. Rifled guns are not allowed to circulate in the civilian market.
"It came from the vicinity of Hongti Village. I guess it was a fight between the new and old immigrants in Hongti Village." Chen Baoliang muttered, as if he was used to this kind of thing.
His expression of indifference had told Liang Yao that this kind of thing had happened more than once or twice.
"Fight? Aren't you afraid of causing death in such a fight?" Liang Yao's heart tightened.
"They all fired guns into the air to scare the other party. No one dared to point the gun at the other party. They didn't want to get involved in a murder case, so they still had some sense of propriety. When the gunshots rang out, I guess the police in the town had already set out and rushed over. Nothing will happen." Chen Baoliang said.
Liang Yao stopped his horse and asked about the cause of the fight in Hongti Village: "What is the conflict between the new and old immigrants? Why the fight?"
The immigrants in Hongti Village pulled out guns to fight. Even if they didn't intend to kill each other, the two sides must have deep grievances. It's not as simple as an ordinary conflict.
"Why else? It's all about money." Chen Baoliang replied.
"Is it a money problem?" Liang Yao asked.
"Yes, it's a money problem. Hongti Village is engaged in grape planting. Now is the harvest season. When merchants come to collect grapes, new immigrants are short of money and often like to sell at a lower price, hoping to get rid of their grapes as soon as possible. The old immigrants are resentful of the new immigrants for this. The new immigrants' grapes have pushed down the price, so they naturally have to lower the price of their grapes to sell them." Chen Baoliang talked about the whole story.
"Don't we have an agricultural association? What is your agricultural association for? How did you become the chairman of the agricultural association?" Liang Yao said angrily, "These are all the responsibilities of your agricultural association!"
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"There is an agricultural association, but when it was first established, only grain growers were required to join the association, and there was no hard requirement for growers of other crops." Chen Baoliang explained, "You need to pay membership fees every year to join the agricultural association, and many new immigrants don't know what the agricultural association is. They are worried that they will have to pay other money after joining the agricultural association. Therefore, some new immigrants are unwilling to join the agricultural association even if they are persuaded."
"To put it bluntly, it's still because your agricultural association is not doing its job well. You can't handle this matter clearly. The matter of Stockton's establishment of a city will be put on hold for the time being. When there are no more armed conflicts, consider establishing a city again." Liang Yao scolded.
"If you don't want to join, persuade them. If you can't persuade them, ask the state legislature to legislate to force all farmers, regardless of new or old, to join the agricultural association. Do I need to teach you how to do this?"
Hongti Village is less than 10 kilometers away from Stockton Town. Liang Yao and his party quickly arrived at Hongti Village on horseback.
This is a village specializing in growing grapes. The villagers of the entire village mainly make a living by growing grapes. There are 260 grape growers.
About 90 of these growers are new immigrants, and the rest are old immigrants.
Of course, new immigrants and old immigrants are very vague concepts. For example, in the eyes of immigrants in 1850, immigrants in 1851 are all new immigrants.
In front of immigrants in 1854, immigrants in 1853 also feel that they are old immigrants.
It may be more appropriate to call them grape growers who are willing to lower prices and grape growers who are unwilling to lower prices.
Liang Yaochi rode through the path in the middle of the grape vines, and scattered grapes could be seen everywhere. Some grape racks had been destroyed, and the grape vines on the racks had been cut off. What's worse, even the grape vines were directly destroyed. It can be seen that the contradiction between the two sides is deep.
When we arrived at the village square, we saw that the people on the square were divided into three groups. One group was the old growers who were unwilling to sell grapes at a lower price, and the other group was the new growers who wanted to sell grapes at a lower price. The remaining group was the grape buyers who sat next to the freight wagon and smoked cigarettes to watch the show.
The grape growers were fighting among themselves, and these grape buyers were the biggest beneficiaries, so they were happy to watch from the sidelines and wait to reap the benefits.
The police who came from Stockton had confiscated the growers' guns, but fierce conflicts still broke out between these growers, except that the weapons in the fight were changed from hot weapons to cold weapons.
Although the police from Stockton had arrived at the scene, since almost all the people in Hongti Village participated in the fight, the more than 20 police officers from Stockton still failed to prevent the conflict from escalating further.
Soon, the conflict between these villagers escalated from verbal conflicts to physical conflicts. A thousand people, regardless of gender, age or status, picked up stones and other debris on the ground and threw them into the other side.
After the accompanying guards fired a few shots into the air, the rioting of the crowd gradually subsided.
The riot was quelled for a while, but the anger of both sides did not subside.
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