Chapter 372: Call From Paris

"You bunch of cheap animals, what good grapes! Why not sell them at a good price? Why do you have to sell them at a damn low price!"

"It's because you old immigrants didn't treat us as human beings last year! You didn't even say hello when you bought grapes, and sold your own grapes at a good price first, causing our grapes to rot in the field!"

"This is the market, don't you know?! Do you know what the market is, country bumpkin? The market has a different price every day, with gains and losses! If you are willing to accept the loss, you can accept the loss! If you can't afford to lose, I will give you a boat ticket to go back to the Qing Dynasty to continue growing sweet potatoes!"

"Bah! Go to the market! I only know that I still owe the bank a lot of loans! Whoever doesn't let me sell the grapes today, I will be angry with him! Fight him to the death! If you are willing to accept the loss, it's your turn to lose this year!"

Both sides insisted on their own opinions and started arguing.

But both sides made a lot of noise but did little, which is also an old tradition in Fujian and Guangdong.

Everyone cursed, but at most they would throw stones and rotten leaves, and it was difficult for them to really fight.

Even if they fought, they had to let the other party start first, after all, the Stockton police were watching.

In California, gang fights are not trivial matters. The lightest punishment is to go to jail and serve 2 to 5 years of hard labor.

Whoever starts the fight first will be the one at the wrong in court in the future.

Of course, there are not only Chinese immigrants in the Red Grape Village who cursed, but also a small number of Mexican immigrants, immigrants from the eastern United States, and even French immigrants.

These non-Chinese immigrants also chose their own camps based on the principle of first come first served.

But it is clear that some of them are not so smart, and they actually picked up a stick removed from the grape trellis and hit people on the head.

The unlucky guy who was hit on the head by a club fell to the ground before he could even groan.

"Murder!"

I don't know who shouted this in the crowd.

The tacit understanding of only talking but not fighting was finally broken.

The two sides, who had lost control and restraint, started fighting in the square.

At first, everyone could still distinguish between the enemy and us. After all, Hongti Village was such a small place. Everyone was familiar with each other.

But soon, as the formation was broken up, the two sides fought more and more, and soon it turned into a farce of beating anyone they saw.

"Didn't you say that these people had some sense? Why did they fight directly?" Liang Yao looked gloomily at the group of villagers fighting under his nose.

"Accident, accident." Chen Baoliang could only explain the cause of the fight as an accident.

"All those who gathered to fight will be imprisoned."

Liang Yao pulled out the revolver at his waist and fired all six bullets in the cylinder in one breath. Then he waved his hand, signaling the Stockton police and his guards to control the grape growers fighting in the square.

Although the situation was under control, people had already died. There were three growers, two men and one woman, two of whom were beaten to death and one was trampled to death. As for the injured, there were even more.

After checking their bodies, the Stockton police shook their heads helplessly.

"Gathering to fight and causing death is not a trivial matter. Let the state send someone to deal with it and open a court to try the case."

Encountering this kind of thing, Fremont's good mood was swept away and he sighed.

"This matter was not handled well. It is the negligence of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Association. If similar things happen again in the future, Chen Baoliang, your job as Minister of Agriculture will end." Liang Yao was also in a very bad mood.

If the Ministry of Agriculture had paid more attention and come forward to solve this matter in time, things would not have developed to this extent.

After leaving Hongti Village, Liang Yao had no intention of returning to Stockton for dinner, but returned to his own special train to Nevada to inspect the construction of the Pacific Railway with Fremont.

Hu Jinchen has gone to Los Angeles to set up Los Angeles Petrochemical, and now Carnegie has taken over Hu Jinchen's job.

Liang Yao walked to the desk on the special train and sat down. On the desk, there were several newspapers that Liang Yao often read and telegrams sent to him recently.

The stations along the California railway are equipped with telegraph rooms to allocate and mobilize trains on the railway line.

Therefore, even if Liang Yao is not in Tingtao Garden in San Francisco, he can still receive telegrams sent to him.

There are three most important telegrams among these telegrams. The first one is sent from Paris.

To be precise, it was sent from Paris to New York in the form of a letter, and then the New York telegraph office transmitted the letter to California in the form of a wired telegraph.

This is the fastest way of communication between California and Europe. It only takes a little more than two weeks for Liang Yao to receive news from Paris.

In the era when the Atlantic submarine cable has not yet been laid, cross-ocean information transmission between the Atlantic still needs to be transmitted by cruise ships.

James told him to stock up more arms, especially ammunition, in addition to the daily kerosene, and told him that a war was about to break out in Europe.

James was very sensitive and well-informed.

Although James's prediction that Britain and France would join the war around Christmas was a little inaccurate, it was very accurate. He even made a judgment in the letter that the Kingdom of Sardinia would form an alliance with France to fight against Russia. This shows how well-informed the Rothschild family's information network is in Europe.

The second telegram was sent from Fillmore in Washington. The negotiation between the US Ambassador to Mexico City, Gadsden, and the new Mexican President on the purchase of the northern Mexican territory had reached a new level of tension.

Fillmore asked Liang Yao to increase troops on the US-Mexico border to put pressure on Mexico and to help Ambassador Gadsden obtain as much Mexican territory as possible at the lowest cost.

Fillmore did not hide his ambition for Mexican territory at all.

He was determined to obtain Mexican territory. I think he also smelled the smell of war from the turbulent situation in Europe in the past few months.

America in the mid-19th century was not America for Americans, but America for Europeans.

But as long as a war broke out in Europe and Britain and France had no time to look west, then America would temporarily be America for Americans.

California's industrialization requires high-quality iron ore. Although there are Mexican iron ore owners in the California Coal and Steel Alliance, Liang Yao can successfully obtain high-quality Mexican iron ore from Mexico at a good price.

But if he could directly take over the iron ore area in Mexico and put it in his pocket, it would be the best thing.

Mexico dare not not sell iron ore to him, but it does not mean that the British and French will not interfere in the future.

Especially the British, who have annoyed Liang Yao more than once.

It feels more secure to hold the iron ore area in his own hands.

This is Liang Yao's only chance to obtain the Mexican iron ore area, and he must seize it.