"I, Liang Yao, swear an oath in blood before Guan Gong today! From tonight onwards, I will live and die together with all my brothers and my second uncle, advance and retreat together, share happiness and difficulties together, and will not hesitate to go through fire and water. If you violate my words today, you will be punished like this!"
Liang Yao solemnly swore in front of the Guan Gong statue enshrined in Cai Mingsheng's home, drank the blood wine, picked up the scissors on the altar, and cut off the humiliating braid on his head without hesitation! He wanted to cut off this cumbersome braid on the boat.
"Third brother, it's good enough if you have this intention! You must not cut your hair or braids! Your hair and skin are given by your parents, how can you damage them?"
Deng Yan, a witness, saw Liang Yao cutting his braid and rushed forward to dissuade him, but it was too late. Liang Yao had already cut off the braid with lightning speed and threw it into the brazier. In order to cut off the braid cleanly, he sharpened the scissors overnight.
"My hair may be cut off, but the brotherhood between me and you cannot be severed!"
After cutting his braids, Liang Yao felt refreshed.
Except for Deng Wenyu, who was gifted and whose family barely paid the tuition to support his three-year private school study, the rest of the Deng family were illiterate.
It is no use talking to these people about any moral principles. Establishing a party based on the relationship of cousins and creating a common interest group for their mutual benefit is an effective way to gather them around him. If it were not for the issue of seniority between him and Deng Yan, he would even want to become sworn brothers with Deng Yan.
He didn't know whether the Deng brothers believed in Confucius, but they definitely believed in Guan Gong.
The Deng brothers were generally not very old, about the same age as Liang Yao, or slightly older or younger, and their minds were not very mature. This kind of plot that only happened in the stories of storytellers appeared in their lives, which made their blood boil.
Liang Yao struck while the iron was hot, took out the Zhongyi Society's constitution that had been drafted long ago, and read it out.
"First: No unauthorized action or private gold mining is allowed.
Second: All income is paid into the association, and dividends are distributed at the end of the year.
Third: The Loyalty Society will provide food and lodging for all members and their families.
Fourth: No smoking of opium, prostitution, or gambling.
Anyone who violates these rules will be expelled from the Loyalty Society and will not be forgiven."
In the Qing Dynasty, forming a clique was a capital crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of the clan, but the Tiandihui was already rampant in Guangdong, and the rulers of the north were out of reach, so the Deng family did not have much resistance to this.
What's more, this is California, which is 20,000 miles away from the Qing Dynasty. Even if they restore the Ming Dynasty here, the Qing Dynasty will have no control over it.
After reading the charter, Liang Yao took out his only twelve ounces of gold as the initial funding for the Loyalty Society.
After a moment's hesitation, the Deng brothers took out the small pieces of silver hidden in the soles of their shoes, between the seams of their clothes, in their crotches and other strange places.
Liang Yao looked down upon these few pieces of silver, but he was determined to keep the financial power firmly in his own hands.
"Third brother is one of us, don't you trust him? Third brother has already given us so much gold, is it possible that he would cheat you of your few small coins in front of Guan Gong?"
Seeing that the two young men from the Deng family were unwilling to use their own private money, Deng Yan stood up to support Liang Yao and took out all his belongings and gave them to Liang Yao.
Seeing this, the remaining two Deng brothers also took out a few small silver coins from the soles of their feet.
Liang Yao originally wanted to set up a company like other gold-mining organizations, but considering practical factors, he decided to set up a secret society first.
There is not much gold left to be mined by manpower near San Francisco, and this is Brannan's territory. Although the transportation conditions here are convenient, Liang Yao does not plan to start his business here. His ideal starting point is Sacramento, a new gold mining area more than 100 kilometers away from San Francisco.
But before that, he had to visit Sartre to obtain a legal piece of land.
Gold panning is not just about digging for gold in the physical sense. In fact, there are only a few lucky people who become rich and reach the peak of their lives by directly mining gold.
Most of the people who made their fortunes in the California Gold Rush were people like Brannan who did not directly participate in the gold rush but engaged in monopoly operations.
Liang Yao didn't want his hard work to go to waste because of illegal occupation and settlement.
Although directly occupying land to mine gold has no cost and does not require any price in the short term, we still have to look at the long term.
Furthermore, when he first arrived in California, he needed a partner, and Sartre was a particularly suitable partner.
After Liang Yao arranged for Deng Yan to take the Deng family members to buy some necessary daily necessities in San Francisco, they went to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento to visit Sutter under the guidance of Cai Mingsheng.
"My former employer doesn't like gold diggers. I'm afraid you'll return empty-handed this time."
On the way, Cai Mingsheng gave Liang Yao a shot of prevention in advance so that Liang Yao could be mentally prepared.
In his previous life, Liang Yao made a living by deceiving people, so he still had confidence in convincing Sartre.
Sartre's current situation is not good either, he is on the verge of bankruptcy. This man discovered gold, but spent the rest of his life in resentment and poverty, and finally died sadly, which is a tragic figure that makes people sigh.
"Saise! You damn termites! Get out of my territory!" An exasperated middle-aged white man was pulling the reins of his mount with one hand and firing a gun into the air with the other, trying to drive away the gold diggers who had invaded his private territory. This made Liang Yao think of the typical American redneck image in later generations.
"This is my former club."
Cai Mingsheng pointed at the middle-aged white man and said, "He is my former employer, Sartre."
"Mr. Sartre, I have brought you the wooden furniture you asked me to make." Cai Mingsheng said to Sartre after unloading the wooden furniture from the carriage.
"Cai, you are always so steady and punctual in your work. I wish my employees were as reliable as you. Those damn lazy bastards not only go out to pan for gold, but they also steal my things!"
When he saw Cai Mingsheng, Sartre's expression became much kinder. Liang Yao noticed a hint of military temperament between Sartre's brows.
"Is this the hired worker you want to introduce to me? Great, my farm is in need of manpower. The increasingly barren land needs people to cultivate it, and the livestock also need people to feed it. But he is a little weak."
Sartre looked Liang Yao up and down as if he were observing a commodity, thinking that Liang Yao was the employee recommended to him by Cai Mingsheng.
"Hello Mr. Sartre, I'm sorry to say that I'm not the employee that Mr. Cai introduced to you. In fact, I'm also a borer, a borer obsessed with gold."
Liang Yao stated his identity very frankly, and as expected, Sartre did not give Liang Yao a good look.
"So what do you want from me? You damned little borer."
Sartre did not immediately order Liang Yao to leave for the sake of Cai Mingsheng, but he looked very impatient.
"Just half a year ago, I was a student at Monson High School in Massachusetts. My damn father had a lot of gambling debts and abandoned me and my brothers and sisters. At this time, I saw the news of gold discovery in California in the newspaper. For the sake of my brothers and sisters, I decided to come here with my compatriots to pan for gold."
Liang Yao continued to weave his lies without changing his expression, while Cai Mingsheng, who was standing beside him, was stunned as he listened.
Cai Mingsheng knew Liang Yao's family background very well. The story about him studying in Massachusetts was completely fabricated. Are all the scholars in the Qing Dynasty so shameless? They lie without hesitation.
Sartre was not a particularly famous person in history. Liang Yao did not know Sartre's life. He did not get much information from Cai Mingsheng. He only knew that Sartre was from the German-speaking region of Europe.
In other words, Sartre was a European immigrant who came to America from Europe, the center of civilization during this period, or he was an immigrant from a remote area of America. He either committed a crime in his motherland, or left his homeland due to huge debts or other reasons.
Of course, there were also a very small number of impoverished aristocrats who drifted from Europe to America, but Sartre's image makes it difficult for people to associate him with the term aristocracy.
At Sartre's age, he probably already had a family in Europe and had abandoned his wife and children to come here. This was Liang Yao's guess based on the information Cai Mingsheng told him.
Sartre's eyes flashed with a barely perceptible trace of pity, but Liang Yao, who was good at observing people's expressions, saw it all. He guessed it right, Sartre really had a family in Europe.
"So you are still a poor little parasite, but what does this have to do with me? I'm not your gambler father." Sartre said coldly.
"I got some reliable news in Boston that the Eastern consortium will soon move in here. Their machinery and equipment have already been shipped, and California will soon be established as a state. As long as you can hold on to your legal land before they arrive and become a person with a say in California, you can make a fortune by selling just a little bit of land."
Liang Yao stared at Sartre's slightly moved face, paused and continued.
"If you still have a say in California and have a little money, you will be one of the first members of the California Legislature and one of the richest and most powerful people in California. But as far as I know, the richest and most powerful person in California right now is Mr. Sam Brannan."
When Brannan was mentioned, Sartre was like a cat whose tail was stepped on, almost jumping off his horse. I guess there were a lot of grievances and entanglements between them. This was also a very good signal for Liang Yao, they had someone they hated in common, which was a very good basis for cooperation.
"It's just that now those gold-digging parasites think that the West is a no-man's land, and they wantonly occupy your legal land and steal your sacred and inviolable private property. These guys who deserve to be hanged are really evil!"
"Come on, little borer, come sit in my castle and have some coffee. I can't believe you're still a middle school student."
Sartre turned his horse and walked slowly towards his farm, thinking that if only his children in Europe could be half as smart as Liang Yao, at least they would not have to worry about food and clothing.
Sutter Castle, also known as Sutter's estate, was already in a state of decline. In such a huge estate, Liang Yao only saw a few absent-minded Indian workers. After the discovery of gold, everyone went crazy and rushed into the gold rush. No one was willing to be Sutter's worker anymore.
"Tell me, young sir, what can you give me? What do you need from me?"
Sartre took a sip of coffee and asked while crossing his legs.
"Have you any sugar cubes, Mr. Sutter?"
Liang Yao took a sip of coffee, the extremely bitter taste was hard for him to accept.
Sartre met Liang Yao's request and brought him two sugar cubes. Liang Yao rubbed the sugar cubes while speaking.
"I want to legally obtain a small piece of land from you for me and my compatriots to settle down. This land is best to be on the banks of the American River. I will pay you 10% of the gold mining proceeds as land rent.
In return, when we have enough gold, we will buy this land from you at a price that satisfies you. When necessary, my compatriots and I will take up arms to help you defend our rights.
Of course, you can also choose to reject me as a reliable partner. Then those barbaric gold diggers will gradually eat away at your territory until you go bankrupt and become a penniless, heavily indebted pauper. "