Chapter 553 Fremont Voted

What can you buy with five million dollars in the 19th century?

On October 27, 1821, the United States and Spain signed a contract to buy the ownership of Florida for five million dollars.

In fact, the Americans did not spend a penny, but directly occupied it militarily in the name of expelling Indians under the name of the Seminole War.

Spain, which was in decline, had no strength to bargain with this emerging power in North America. In addition, the former was experiencing domestic uprisings and natural disasters, so it could only give Florida to the latter for free.

Adams, the then US Secretary of State, excitedly said: "This will be a new era in American history.".

But he would never have thought that 23 years later, the Austrians would buy a fleet of 70 warships and 18,000 officers and soldiers from the Americans for five million dollars.

In fact, before Ashton Hoffman, the envoy of the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Company, came, the US military was divided into two camps. One camp advocated directly admitting defeat and withdrawing to the US mainland, and the other camp advocated continuing to fight to contain the Austrian army.

However, because of John Fremont's personal reputation and excellent organizational skills, these people were united to continue harassing the California coastline, so that even if the Austrian army won, it would not be able to expand it further.

But since that meeting, John Fremont has been trying his best to cover up the fact that he has lost contact with the United States.

However, paper cannot cover fire, and forcibly putting paper on the fire will also help the spread of the fire.

In order to dispel the doubts of the soldiers, John Fremont directed and acted in a big drama.

His men hired a group of merchants from the port of Barranquilla in Colombia to act as messengers, and then read the "victory" to the soldiers of the expeditionary force.

At that time, the morale of the soldiers was indeed boosted again, but some people also raised objections. Why did the US military break through the Fort San Gabriel and Mexico City, and not continue to send troops to attack Los Angeles and San Francisco.

And why there were no reinforcements, even if it was just a little supply.

But those were just the voices of the minority. At this time, John Fremont only needed a big victory to regain control of the situation.

But reality hit him hard again. I don't know where the Austrians got so many troops from. There are garrisons in every city.

And letting the navy go to the land to forcibly attack the well-defended positions is simply a joke.

After several setbacks, John Fremont had to lead his troops back to the temporary camp and wait for the opportunity. But the house leaked and it rained all night. The fleet's supplies were exhausted.

In fact, they used to rely on plundering the coastal areas of California, but now this trick doesn't work, so he can only go to the nearest port for supplies.

The nearest port is Barranquilla Port in Gran Colombia, but now John Fremont is facing a new problem, that is, there is no money.

At the same time, John Fremont is not the real commander of this fleet, and he has no power to owe debts on behalf of the United States. The Colombians also brought a lot of bad news to the US military.

That is, the European powers have decided to support Mexico. The fleets of Britain, France and Austria have set out from the European continent. What's more terrible is that Winfield's army has been surrounded by Mexicans, and Zachary Taylor's main force has not yet broken through the Grande River defense line.

John Fremont wanted to say that these were all rumors, but another soldier met the extras he had invited in the tavern.

After the American soldier had a friendly exchange with him, he learned the truth of the matter. The situation had developed beyond John Fremont's control.

The angry crowd locked John Fremont in the cargo warehouse on the flagship. He did not resist and did not want to resist again.

In the warehouse, John Fremont began to worry about the future fate of America, because his special forces seemed to have become an isolated army at this time. An inexplicable sadness surged in his heart, and he even began to suspect that he would soon die in his sleep.

However, when John Fremont woke up the next day, he was not dead. On the contrary, the door of the warehouse was still open, and someone called him out.

John Fremont was very calm at this time, just smiled and tidied his clothes.

"Do you have a cigarette?"

The soldier on the side quickly took out a paper cigarette from his pocket and handed it over. John Fremont held the cigarette in his mouth and continued.

"Is there a fire?"

The soldier quickly took out another match. With a crisp sound of "crack", the smell of burning red phosphorus and pine wood came out. John Fremont took a deep breath and closed his eyes as if he was savoring something.

"Thank you, please lead the way." John Fremont said sincerely.

The hatch was soon opened, and the long-lost sunshine made the explorer squint his eyes. He began to think about his life and those thrilling adventures.

John Fremont looked at the familiar faces in front of him, he felt a little guilty, but he did not regret it.

If God gave him another chance, John Fremont would still choose to cross the Rocky Mountains and cross the Nevada Desert to this golden coast.

Breathing the slightly salty and humid sea breeze, John Fremont felt that today was indeed a good day to die, so he walked to the bow.

"Come on, let's start! Long live freedom! Long live democracy! America"

John Fremont was interrupted before he finished his last words. The officer beside him helped him change into the uniform of a naval officer and the sailing cap that symbolized the commander of the fleet.

The captains shouted in unison: "Mr. Fremont! You are now our fleet commander!"

In fact, after John Fremont was locked up in the warehouse, the US military had a fight on the land of the Republic of Gran Colombia, and it was not settled until nearly a thousand people died.

John Fremont was not a fool. He knew very well that if his approach did not satisfy everyone, the final result would probably be the same as the group of people who were purged last night, dying in a foreign country.

"Long live the Austrian Empire! We have abandoned the dark and joined the light!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

Accompanied by cheers and flying navy caps, Fremont's fleet sailed towards Los Angeles. As for the account in the port of Barranquilla, it was naturally recorded by the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Company.

In fact, every move of the US military was under the surveillance of the Austrian side, but if Fremont could hold on for a while longer, he might be able to wait for intelligence from Washington.

Because this time John Tyler sent a warship to deliver intelligence, which was not something that a hundred or so Austrian agents could handle.

It was no problem for these intelligence officers to deal with messengers or ordinary merchants, but they had almost no chance of winning against the army, after all, they were trained mainly to collect and transmit intelligence, not to fight.

But unfortunately, when Washington's messenger discovered Fremont's fleet, the latter had already hung the Austrian flag and chose to sink the former without hesitation.

If Franz was here, he would definitely hope that the California Coast Guard would release Washington's messenger, which would be more effective.