Zhu Fugui stood in front of the sand table, reviewing the military intelligence during this time, and felt that he was really a military strategist.

Although I don't know how it was done, anything that does not match the historical trajectory is calculated according to the merits of the Ming Dynasty.

From this point of view, my Ming is really invincible in the world!

However, Zhu Fugui was also nervous in his heart.

Because the next opponent of the Ming Dynasty is an absolutely difficult bone to gnaw, because it is the largest American colonial stronghold in the Northwest - Portland.

When it comes to Portland, if most people don't check the information, the only impression of him is probably the Rose City or the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA.

The name "Pioneer" is a good indication of the colonial character of the city.

In later generations, Portland was far less developed than Seattle, with a population of just over 600,000.

But in this era, and even before the railroad was extended to the Seattle deep-water port in the 1870s, Portland was the largest port in the Pacific Northwest in the United States.

As early as 1805, colonial leaders Lewis and Clark made an "expedition" to establish a settlement.

In the beginning, Portland was in the shadow of Oregon City, 19 kilometers upstream of the Willamady River, but Portland's terrain is very good, not far from the mouth of the Willa River, giving it a key advantage.

By 1840, Portland had taken the place of Oregon City as the largest base for immigrants from the western United States to run the Northwest Coast.

According to the data, Portland currently has a population of 70,000, while the population of the entire state of Oregon is more than 200,000.

By contrast, Washington State, where Seattle is located, is far from being formed in this era, and without a state legislature, the state-controlled National Guard would be impossible.

But as early as 1848, Oregon was already in existence and joined the federal government in 1859.

Oregon is not as well organized as the eastern states, but it is also far better than the Seattle area.

Here, the 41st Infantry Brigade of the National Guard, commanded by the state government, is stationed, one of the 20 standing brigades of the All-American National Guard, and its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

In fact, even in later generations, Zhu Fugui had heard the name of the Oregon National Guard.

In the Black Lives Matter movement, the Portland shooting was one of the triggers, and Portland naturally became the hardest hit area of the movement.

There were even more than 100 days of riots in downtown Portland, and the state government finally brought in the National Guard to restore law and order.

Although in essence, the National Guard can also be counted as a type of militia, there is no doubt that the combat effectiveness of the standing brigade with state financial support is far from comparable to the militia organizations organized by the old white men who met in Seattle and Bremerton before.

In fact, not to mention the gap in individual combat strength, the military strength of the 41st Infantry Brigade of about 5,000 is the biggest obstacle encountered by the Ming Dynasty in the process of going south.

However, going south is the basic national policy of the Ming Dynasty, and the full occupation of all ports and land west of the Rocky Mountains is a necessary choice for the Ming Dynasty to settle down.

If you want to get your hands on the rich San Francisco and Los Angeles, Portland must gnaw off this hard bone.

In order to achieve this goal, the entire Ming Dynasty, as a war machine, once again rumbled on.

But before that, Zhu Fugui was going to reply to her first female fan first, after all, she and her family seemed to have encountered a little trouble.

……

Vanderbilt Estate, New York.

In just half a year, the elder Vanderbilt looks ten years older.

In the past, he was full of energy and vigor, not at all like a 70-year-old man.

But now, old Vanderbilt seems to be just an ordinary, dying old man.

Steve and William were the two sons Vanderbilt Sr. valued the most.

Of course, the latter has always been valued, and the former has gradually been valued because he has done an excellent job in solving the problem of ship asset liquidation.

Calling the two sons over today, old Vanderbilt chatted uncharacteristically for half an hour.

He recalls how ambitiously he started from scratch fifty years ago, and also talks about how naughty his children were when they were children.

At the end, he also sighed that he had missed too many things in his life, and not accompanying his family well was the biggest regret.

Such words, coming from the mouth of a ruthless big capitalist, made both sons feel the seriousness of the matter.

Although they have not heard of the phrase "the words of a man who are dying are good, and the song of a bird is also mourning", they also understand that their old father said such an abnormal word, it seems that he is really in a slump.

If it was in the past, the old father had the intention of abdicating, and the two brothers would definitely fight over the inheritance, but at this time, they did not dare to answer.

The reason is simple, the railroad investment has suffered huge losses, and it is very likely that the entire Vanderbilt family will go bankrupt!

The cause of the matter has to start with the civil war with a sudden change in the style of painting.

Before the outbreak of the war, the United States had 53,000 kilometers of railways, about half of the world's railway length, and 3,000 kilometers more than all of Europe combined.

Far from slowing down the development of the railroad industry in the United States, the outbreak of war became a driving force.

In the first year of the war, the Northern Union government built 20,000 kilometers of railways.

However, these railways were actually concentrated in the eastern region, and they mainly ran in a north-south direction, in order to facilitate the transportation of war materials.

At the same time, the three Pacific Railroads to the Pacific in the South (Los Angeles/San Diego), North (Seattle/Portland), and Central (Salamento/San Francisco) are making slow progress and are in dire need of capital injection.

The ambitious old Vanderbilt is optimistic about these three major arteries that cross the United States.

As a top capitalist and ship king in New York, Vanderbilt Sr. sold all the shipping assets in his name and invested in the railroad on the North and Middle Routes.

Among them, the North Line, that is, the railway to the Seattle area, although the technical difficulty is relatively low, but Seattle has a small population and low commercial value in this era, so although the old Vanderbilt bought the right to operate the railway, he is not in a hurry to return to the capital, which is a long-term investment.

But the middle line railway is different, which is related to the success or failure of this investment.

In fact, as long as one of the two railroads can be successfully opened, the Vanderbilt family will make a lot of money, but the middle line will make even more.

In 1862, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had already approved the building bill for the median line.

The Act provides for the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad to jointly build the transcontinental Pacific Railroad.

The Union Pacific Railroad starts in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific Railroad starts in Sacramento, California.

The two companies paved the railroad in the east-west direction. The western section of the Pacific Railroad had to cross the entire Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the project was extremely difficult.

In the first year, the Central Pacific Railroad Company made rapid progress, and the Union Pacific Railroad sent personnel to learn from the experience and discover the secret of the Central Company's use of Chinese laborers.

Then, in the first half of last year, the United Company promoted Henry, the former head of Prash Mining, to be the sole head of the railway, and boldly used Chinese workers for construction.

However, it turned out that the United Company enabled Henry to be a complete disaster.

This vain dandy is a complete straw bale who messes everything up.

For three whole months, such precious three months, not a single Chinese was sent from Port Angeles.

Until he realized that something was wrong and re-contacted the shipping company in San Francisco, it took half a year before and after.

Old Vanderbilt didn't know how the company he invested in found such a pig to be the project leader, he only knew that if he couldn't see the railway open on time after adding nearly three times the financial leverage, then he had no second way out except to hang himself on the luxurious chandelier of his villa.

"You also have to think of a way to promote the middle line to be completed on schedule, or to transfer the capital risk, in short, you quickly think of a way, whoever can solve this problem, who is my favorite son, who can inherit everything from me!"

Old Vanderbilt stood up, his eyes red, and stared at Steve and William.

…………

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