Chapter 502: I Think It’s Unlucky to Live in a Place Where the British Have Lived

"The treaty also stipulates that the Hudson's Bay Company retains property north of the Columbia River, and the property of the Hudson's Bay Company and Britain south of the border will be respected. Your Excellency is now rashly surrounding Bellingham and cutting off the normal trade activities of my British subjects. What about this clause?"

Elliot still insisted, he argued.

These two clauses are indeed important contents of the Oregon Treaty. When the treaty was signed, British Columbia was still under the jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company.

These two clauses are also the compromises that the United States had to make due to the limited strength of the United States.

However, when it came to Elliot, these two clauses were taken out of context. The formal treaty text stated that the United States respected the legal property of the Hudson's Bay Company and other British companies or individuals.

"It seems that your Excellency has really read this treaty, but it's just a glance. Your Excellency didn't read it carefully enough." Liang Yao slapped a copy of the treaty on the oak table.

"This is a copy of the treaty. Your Excellency has seen it clearly. It is the legal property of the British side!"

"Oh?" Elliot just glanced at the treaty with disdain.

Seeing that Elliot's attitude was still so rude, Liang Yao did not give Elliot a good face: "The British side illegally settled across the border, exercised the laws of the British colony on my American land, and turned Bellingham into a country within a country. The property earned by this means? Do you think it is legal property?!"

"Your Excellency means that you are not going to withdraw troops from Bellingham? Are you going to besiege Bellingham to the end?" Elliot confronted.

"As long as the illegal British settlers do not leave, my army will not withdraw!" Liang Yao issued an expulsion order to Elliot without any hesitation.

"I want to discuss with you to clarify the border and eliminate the grudges between the two countries. Since your Excellency is so insincere! Next, I will take more radical measures to defend our legal rights and interests! Goodbye!"

The first meeting between Britain and the United States ended unhappily.

Liang Yao's words to Elliot were not just talk.

The next morning, he ordered the Oregon Regiment to attack Bellingham.

Many of the illegal residents in Bellingham were employees of British colonial companies, and these employees would naturally not risk their lives for a salary of three or four pounds a month.

The Oregon Regiment controlled these British illegal residents with almost no effort.

The Northern Oregon Territory is a territorial area, and California laws apply to the Northern Oregon Territory. The territorial area uses the laws of the federal government, and there are laws to follow to imprison these illegal British residents.

In 1856, the United States implemented the Immigration Act of 1850.

According to this act, smuggling and illegal entry are illegal acts, and the American authorities have the right to impose fines, detention, deportation, and prohibition on entry on these violators.

This act is a relatively standardized immigration law since the founding of the United States. It stipulates the standards and procedures for immigration, including identity and health checks before entering the United States, and signing a statement promising not to participate in illegal activities. It is worth mentioning that the act also stipulates the prohibition of the slave trade.

Liang Yao imprisoned more than 700 British people in Bellingham according to the Immigration Act of 1850 and issued an ultimatum to the Governor of British Columbia, Elliot.

"A good place was ruined by the British."

After the Oregon Regiment recaptured Bellingham, Liang Yao also came to Bellingham.

The planning of Bellingham was very bad. It was said to be a port stronghold, but there were few decent buildings in the entire settlement. There were hastily built simple wooden houses everywhere.

The port was also built very hastily and could only berth small boats with a displacement of several hundred tons.

In addition to the poor planning, the sanitation in Bellingham was also very worrying. Livestock and even human excrement could be seen everywhere on the streets.

The entire settlement was filled with an indescribable stench.

"It's really disgusting." Ge Wen had already taken out a silk handkerchief to cover his nose.

California is an immigration state. For how to build new immigrant settlements, each immigration company has a set of mature and standard regulations.

From the site selection of new settlements, settlement planning, settlement scale, management of immigrants, food and accommodation standards, how many health clinics and schools are needed, and the industries of future settlements, etc., all have been standardized and proceduralized.

Some immigration companies even ask the construction team to build basic infrastructure before immigration. Of course, if you choose such an immigration company, immigrants need to pay a considerable service fee.

Generally, only resource-based immigration settlements have such high-quality services. For example, a chaebol has set its sights on a coal mine in Oregon. The chaebol will generally entrust an immigration company to build infrastructure and pay service fees, and then recruit immigrants to build a resource-based mining town.

For this reason, the settlements handled by California immigration companies have good planning and sanitary conditions. Most immigrants can find jobs and quickly integrate into the mainstream society of California and become real citizens.

Compared with the new settlements built by California immigration companies, the construction of Bellingham by the United Kingdom is indeed a bit difficult to see at a glance.

"Elvis, gather those British people." Liang Yao said to Elvis, the leader of the Oregon group.

"You want a lecture?" Elvis asked.

"I don't talk to beasts." Liang Yao shook his head and pointed at the buildings in Bellingham and said, "Burn all these illegal buildings in front of the British. I think the place where they lived is unlucky."

Although Elvis was a little confused, it was Liang Yao's order and he still obeyed it.

Seeing that the American troops were about to burn the city, the imprisoned British launched a strong protest. They originally believed that the American troops would be forced to withdraw from Bellingham under the strong pressure from the British. Bellingham was still theirs. idea.

Seeing these restless British people making a fuss, Elvis was not polite to them and fired a gun into the air to silence these annoying British people.

Elvis also felt angry because the Oregon regiment was originally based in Portland.

Although Portland is not as good as San Francisco, where the California regiment is based, it is still better than the current place where birds don't poop and are full of beasts.

The Oregon regiment was transferred here just because these Gou Ba things illegally settled here, which made Elvis very angry.

After several gunshots, the noisy British finally fell silent.

They could only watch their property being set on fire by the barbaric Americans. They wanted to fight, but after seeing the American soldiers with bayonets on their rifles, they could only choose to stay where they were, not daring to speak out in anger.

The day was different ten miles away. It was a sunny day in Bellingham with the sun shining brightly, but at the border more than 30 kilometers away from Bellingham, it started to rain heavily.

There is a colonial infantry regiment in British Columbia. This infantry regiment is the land armed force that Yilu relies on most. This is also the basis for Yilu to maintain his rule in British Columbia, which covers an area of ​​940,000 square kilometers.

At this time, soldiers of this British Colonial Infantry Regiment were confronting the Arizona Regiment on the border.

After the heavy rain started, the infantry of these colonial troops chose to evacuate the border and returned to their camps to take shelter from the rain and make tea.

They drank tea leisurely under the awning and laughed at the soldiers of the Arizona regiment who stood on the border like statues in raincoats.

It’s not like we’re actually going to fight anyway, so why bother working so hard?

This is the idea of ​​these British troops. They do not think that a war will break out between Britain and the United States because of a trivial matter in Bellingham.

At the 49° north latitude border, Yilu held the ultimatum just sent by the United States in his hand, feeling angry and heavy.

Yilu did not expect that Liang Yao would actually take action against Bellingham, nor did he expect that Liang Yao would dare to detain British citizens. He also asked the British Columbia authorities to pay a fine of 30 pounds for each British resident before repatriating these British people. Otherwise, he would Sent to mines in coal mines in Oregon.

Yilu threw the ultimatum into the rain and raised a monocular to observe the American soldiers on the border.

These U.S. troops all have yellow skin. Instead of saying that they are U.S. soldiers, Yilu prefers to believe that they are Chinese soldiers.

During the trade war with China from 1840 to 1842, Yilu saw many soldiers with this color on the other side of the Pacific.

They were sallow, skinny, malnourished, had low morale, their commanders were ignorant and incompetent, and they collapsed at the first touch.

Vulnerable to the powerful British Empire army.

Yilu didn't understand why there was such a big gap in military quality between armies formed by the same race.

"Do they stand like this on the border every day?" Yilu asked the British colonel beside him.

"Yes, Sir, they stand on the border like this every day, changing guard every eight hours, unshakable." The British colonel took out his pocket watch and looked at the time on the watch.

"After a while they will also fire artillery. This is also their unshakable practice. Such a waste of ammunition is incredible. We are all used to it now."

Sure enough, not long after the British colonel finished speaking, the rumble of artillery sounded from the other side of the border. The sound of the artillery was like thunder on a rainy day, hitting Yilu's heart.

The corner of Yilu's mouth twitched a little, and his face was as gloomy as the weather today. He asked the colonel: "They can stand on the border regardless of rain or shine, so what are you doing?!"

"Sir, with all due respect, this is a very stupid act." The colonel lowered his voice and said to Elliot, "It is easy to get sick after being exposed to such heavy rain. Furthermore, the soldiers may also have objections to such an order. "

The British colonel was also helpless. The regiment he led was not a regular British army, but a colonial army. If such an order was given, these [Qiu]·[Eight] would have to riot.

There was only such a decent force in the entire British Columbia area, so he had to be cautious when issuing orders.

The confrontation with the US military on the border is just a show. It uses actions to warn the US military that there are British Empire troops north of 49° north latitude and not to mess around.

"Aren't they flesh and blood? Aren't they going to get sick?" Yilu knocked down the umbrella held by his secretary with one hand and shouted about filial piety angrily.

"Stupid? Let me ask you, if they launch an attack on our army now and the artillery shells hit our army's camp across the border, can you stop their attack? Can New Westminster still be defended? ? Are you worthy of the salary of 550 pounds ($2673) paid to you by the British Empire?"

The British colonel remained silent. He already had answers to these questions in his mind, but he did not dare to argue with the governor who could decide his promotion or dismissal with just one sentence. He could only stand there and be scolded.

British officers in the mid-19th century were high-income earners in British society. After all, these officers were basically children of nobles, and the British Empire would naturally not treat these noble children who served unfairly.

The salaries of British officers during this period were the highest in the world.

At the same time, the annual salary of a US colonel was about $1,500, the annual salary of a French colonel was about 5,000 francs (1,000 US dollars), and the annual salary of a Russian colonel was about 2,400 rubles (1,850 US dollars).

Of course, these salaries are only standard salaries under normal circumstances. The actual salaries will be adjusted by each country based on factors such as the officer's military age, title, mission and location.

Even so, the salary of British officers is not a little higher than that of officers of the same level in other countries.

Among the powers, the Prussian Army has the lowest salary. Compared with other powers, the Prussian Army officers can be said to be a high-risk profession with little money and a lot of work.

At that time, the annual salary of a Prussian colonel was 1,500 thalers, equivalent to about US$550, which was even lower than the annual salary of a US Army major (the annual salary of a US Army major was about US$800).