"West of the Rocky Mountains is uninhabitable!"

This crude and arbitrary conclusion was made by the Hudson's Bay Company, which has a total area of 7.77 million square kilometers of land from the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Canada, the United States and Canada to the south, the British Quebec border to the east, and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

However, this crude conclusion has been repeatedly broken, especially after the news of the discovery of gold in the Fraser Valley in 1858, when the Hudson's Bay Company steam 800 ounces of gold to the Federal Mint in San Francisco in February of that year, and since then, the Fraser Canyon in the Caribou region has become a gold rush, with countless ships full of gold prospectors with dreams of making a fortune heading north, and more than 30,000 gold diggers arrived there in the summer of 1858 alone.

Disappointingly, however, the vast majority of them did not find the legendary gold, and soon the gold rush in the Fraser Valley subsided, with only a few thousand remaining there, and the vast majority left, leaving the once noisy Rocky Mountains once again in silence. But not all places fell silent, and by the end of the gold rush, the Bay of Brenet was thriving.

The West Sea, on the shores of Breenne Bay, is home to Chinese North American companies, which had leased an area west of the Rocky Mountains from Hudson's Bay for £100,000 two years before the gold rush. When the gold rush occurred, the city of Xihai in the Bay of Brenell was also a supply point for gold diggers, and among the gold diggers who dreamed of making a fortune, there were also Chinese.

Because the Fraser Valley was outside the Lend-Lease Agreement and was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, there was no dispute between the two parties at the time of the Gold Rush, and in fact, it was a very good deal for the Hudson's Bay Company to lease the land west of the Rocky Mountains to the North American Company, after all, it was a barren land for the Hudson's Bay Company.

But it's just "some" woods!

That's all.

In the past few years, tens of thousands of lumberjacks from Shandong, Henan and Hebei have come to this bay on the other side of the ocean, where they have built lumberyards and sawmills, and then a city slowly shows its rudimentary shape, unlike the European-style buildings of the cities on the west coast of North America, the style of the city is Oriental, because it is located at the mouth of the Fraser River, the salinity of the river is naturally higher than that of the upper reaches of the Fraser River. Therefore, the first Chinese to arrive here called this place "saltwater port".

Despite the fact that the "saltwater port" of the city is becoming more and more prosperous because of wood, it seems that it is not a big deal for the Hudson's Bay Company, after all, although the North American company has the concession, according to the agreement signed by the two companies, the Hudson's Bay Company still receives 20% of the city's tax revenue, after all, the concession of the North American company is limited, and the two companies have always been extremely calm with almost no disputes.

But this peace was shattered two years ago when the outbreak of war between China and Britain changed everything, and the once friendly relationship became almost unsustainable. North American companies are an awkward presence for both China and the UK.

On the one hand, he was a Chinese company, with nearly 40,000 Chinese immigrants living in the territory of his company's concessions, and on the other hand, the state of war between China and Britain made North American companies enemies of Britain.

The reason for the embarrassment was that neither the Hudson's Bay Company nor the Vancouver Island Colony government on the other side had the ability to expel the North American Company, which had nearly 40,000 lumberjacks and a convoy of more than 2,000 men, which was close to the entire white population of the Harbor Island colony, and Saltwater Port was a "big city" with a population of 5,000.

It is precisely for this reason that after the outbreak of the war, in the face of this "guest" who was far more powerful than itself, the colonial government of Vancouver Island chose to remain silent, and the Hudson's Bay Company also chose to remain silent, so that the west of the Rocky Mountains was in an extremely delicate situation by maintaining the status quo.

The "saltwater port", where the headquarters of the North American company is located, is naturally a delicate center.

Unlike any other city, Saltwater was originally not a city, but a sawmill where timber harvested from the Rocky Mountains was carried down the Fraser River, processed and loaded onto a 5,000-ton schooner to cross the Pacific Ocean to transport timber to China.

It can be said that everything here is dependent on wood, and because of this, most of the buildings in the city are also made of wood, of course, including five years ago, a businessman from China built a wooden restaurant here, this wooden three-story restaurant for lumberjacks from all over the world to drink and relax here, which is the origin of the first hotel in Saltwaterport.

Prostitutes and liquor, this is what the "Izumo Building" can provide to people, compared to the prostitutes from Japan and Korea, for the vast majority of lumberjacks, the corn is their favorite, because of the weather, these lumberjacks have always gulped wine, at most only two peanuts.

As the only brothel, restaurant, and tavern in the city, business in Izumo has always been good, and the lobby is full of carpenters from various woodyards in the mountains.

The strong smell of baogu wine permeated the air, and for the lumberjacks who had been holding back for a winter in the mountains, it was the time for them to indulge, alcohol, women, everything they needed here.

The sound in his ears was all incomprehensible Chinese, and as the representative of the Hudson's Bay Company in Saltwater, Thomas's daily work was very simple, either in Izumo or on the way to Izumo.

Alcohol and women, anesthetizing his spirit, and, of course, his stomach full of complaints.

"You don't understand at all, because I've never been popular with the company, that's why they sent me here at this time!"

Already drunk, Thomas held a Vietnamese prostitute in his arms, picked up his cup and took another sip of the baogu wine, which was not much different from alcohol.

"War can start at any time, here, everyone knows it, including the governor of the Victorian colony opposite, if now, you ......"

Pointing to An Guotao, who was sitting opposite, Thomas laughed.

"If you land in Victoria, I guarantee that the Governor will surrender at the first opportunity, knowing that he has less than 200 civil guard troops at his disposal, and you ...... My friend ......"

There was a hiccup, and Thomas looked at his friend and laughed.

"You command two thousand civil defense troops, more than the whites in the entire colony, if you will, from now on, no more logging, all the workers are concentrated, you can arm at least two divisions of the army!"

"You're drunk, Mr. Thomas!"

An Guotao looked at Thomas and said casually,

"You know it's impossible, we've signed an agreement with you!"

In many cases, an agreement is just a piece of paper, and the premise that it is complied with is that both parties are willing to abide by it, otherwise, no one will take the agreement seriously.

"Drunk?"

Shaking his head, Thomas opened his drunken eyes and looked at An Guotao and smiled.

"Am I drunk? Well, I'm really drunk, but we all know that now, from the day the agreement is signed, both of us are waiting for the day when the agreement is torn up, nothing more than you tear it up or we tear it up, all the decisions, not saltwater, well, it should be in London or the imperial capital......"

As the representative of the company sent to Saltwater, Thomas knew very well that the so-called agreement was simply nonsense, and once an order was sent from London or the imperial capital, the agreement would be torn up, but as a representative, he was undoubtedly in the most dangerous situation, no matter what the outcome, he would lose his freedom at the first moment of war.

Because of this, he would stay in Izumo House every day, get drunk every day, and then wake up on the body of a prostitute, and then continue drinking...... As for this kind of living expenses, he is not worried, this money will naturally be paid by the company, according to the agreement that the company sent him here, the company will be responsible for all his expenses here, and every month, the representative office has 500 pounds of funds for him to use, of course, this money is taken from the North American company to pay the company's fees, 500 pounds, enough for him to squander here, but in this place, except for alcohol and prostitutes, there is nothing else to squander. Even the prostitutes here don't want to see him as a Westerner.

"Tang Lisi, you should know that we will abide by the agreement as much as possible......"

How long will it be observed? An Guotao didn't know, but he knew very well that at least until there were no further instructions in the country, Saltwater Port would be as calm as in the past, but if there was a new order from the country, then this peace would soon be broken, as for the one in front of him, he would definitely become a prisoner at that time, but An Guotao believed that even if he was a prisoner, he would not have any worries about his life.

He's just a pitiful victim, an insignificant little man! Who cares about such a drunkard? However, in connection with his previous words, An Guotao's brows couldn't help frowning, and when he picked up the wine glass, there was a faint melancholy between his eyebrows.

How can a drunkard see something that other Englishmen can't see? Now that everyone knows, how long will this situation drag on here?

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