Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1161 Gold Mine
The accidental discovery of gold mines in the rocks used to build the city wall was a huge surprise.

After confirming that these stones were indeed gold mines, Zhu Mincheng immediately called all his subordinates who were responsible for mining the stones and carefully inquired about where these rocks for building the city wall came from.

Soon they figured out that these rocks came from the mountains to the west of Xinjing City, which was not far from Xinjing. Jian Hu immediately offered to go there in person to find out about the gold mine. Zhu Mincheng originally wanted to go with them, but Jian Hu refused. After all, the place was not far away, but it was not close either. Moreover, as the King of Song, Zhu Mincheng should not leave Xinjing for the time being for safety reasons, because no one could guarantee absolute safety when going out.

Not only Jian Hu, but even Li Dingguo tried to dissuade Zhu Mincheng by citing the previous attack. Zhu Mincheng gave up the idea after thinking about it, and asked Li Dingguo to send someone to escort Jian Hu over to take a look and report back as soon as there was any news.

Just two days later, Jian Hu brought back good news. He had indeed discovered rich gold mines on the other side of the mountains. What was even more surprising was that following the direction of the mountains and nearby rivers, Jian Hu also found a large amount of gold sand in a river not far from the foot of the mountain, which further confirmed the existence of the gold mines.

Another day later, Jian Hu returned to Xinjing in high spirits, and Zhu Mincheng could not wait to ask about the gold mine. Jian Hu took out two items in front of him with a smile and placed them in front of him one by one.

At first sight, Zhu Mincheng was attracted by a piece of gold nugget as big as a child's fist, and he quickly picked it up to take a closer look.

This piece of dog-head gold is golden all over, but it appears slightly reddish compared to ordinary gold, and its surface has irregular undulations. It feels heavy in the hand, weighing approximately two kilograms, and shines like a star in the sun.

For a moment, Zhu Mincheng's breathing became heavy. This was the first time he had seen such a large nugget of gold. Although the purity of the nugget of gold was not as high as that of refined gold, its significance and value were higher than that of ordinary gold. Such a large nugget of gold would be worth a lot of money in the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Highness, there's also this." Seeing Zhu Mincheng holding the gold nugget with a surprised look on his face, Jian Hu smiled and stretched out his hand to point to another object.

The other thing was a fist-sized deerskin bag. Zhu Mincheng hesitated and asked, "Isn't this filled with gold sand?"

"Your Highness is wise! It is gold sand!" Jian Hu laughed and pointed at the deerskin bag. "I found a river at the foot of the mountain. The river is full of gold sand. I personally went into the water and took people to pan for it. I found this bag of gold sand. In my opinion, even if we don't mine the gold mine on the mountain for the time being, the income from the gold sand in the river alone is extremely amazing."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Mincheng quickly picked up the deerskin bag, which was heavier than the nugget of gold. He opened the rope and carefully poured the gold sand on the table. Soon, the table was piled with a mountain of gold sand. Looking at the gold sand shining with an attractive light, Zhu Mincheng couldn't help clapping and laughing.

"Good! Good! Good!"

After saying three "good" words in a row, Zhu Mincheng looked at Jian Hu with admiration on his face. At the beginning, he was selecting people to come to the New World to be a vassal, and many people were unwilling to follow him. Zhu Mincheng finally got these officials together with great difficulty. Among them, Jian Hu was the one Zhu Mincheng specially requested from the Ministry of Works.

Although Jian Hu worked in the Ministry of Works, his position was not high. He was only the ambassador of the Ministry of Works' Construction Office. He and another subordinate, Cui Qi, were both minor officials in the Ministry of Works. Cui Qi was good at farming, while Jian Hu was more proficient in construction. In particular, Jian Hu had worked in several departments of the Ministry of Works. However, because he did not come from a legitimate imperial examination system, was not good at flattery, and had no background, he had not been promoted over the years.

When Zhu Mincheng asked the Ministry of Works for people, no one in the ministry was willing to follow Zhu Mincheng to be granted an overseas fiefdom. However, as the emperor's legitimate sons were granted an overseas fiefdom, the Ministry of Works could not sit idly by. So Jian Hu and Cui Qi, two minor officials of the ninth rank, were arbitrarily assigned to Zhu Mincheng. To be honest, Zhu Mincheng was still a little unhappy at the time, but he did not expect that although these two people were inconspicuous in the Ministry of Works, they played a huge role and showed great ability after they came here.

Cui Qi is not to be mentioned. As a subordinate of the Ministry of Agriculture, he is fully responsible for the farming work of reclaiming wasteland and planting crops. His ability and skills have been proven. Jian Hu has been responsible for the construction of Xinjing and the training of craftsmen in the city, including the creation of various equipment, which also reflects his value. It must be said that if Zhu Mincheng really found a few high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Works, their abilities may not be a big problem in management, but in terms of professional skills, these two people are more outstanding. After all, in the six ministries such as the Ministry of Works, the people below are the ones who really do the work, and the officials above are not very proficient in technology. It can be regarded as a pleasant surprise that these two people were assigned to Zhu Mincheng and came here with him.

At present, the land reclamation and cultivation outside the city has made good progress, and the new capital is also being built and expanded in an orderly manner. What is even more surprising is that because of Jian Hu, they accidentally discovered the location of the gold mine. According to Jian Hu's report, the gold reserves in the mountains west of Xinjing are not small, and once mined, the income will be amazing. Even if they only temporarily pan for gold in the river at the foot of the mountain, the initial estimate is that they can get thousands of taels of gold, and the subsequent mining amount is unimaginable.

What does gold mean? Need I say more? This is a wealth that can't be ignored! It's simply a fortune sent by God. Hearing Jian Hu say this, Zhu Mincheng's blood boiled. If this endless supply of gold can be mined, then the financial problems that have troubled him will be completely solved.

With this gold, Zhu Mincheng could not only buy the various materials he urgently needed from the Ming Dynasty, but also recruit many people from the Ming Dynasty by using the gold mine as an excuse. As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. With the gold production, why would anyone be afraid that no one would be willing to come from the Ming Dynasty? What does Zhu Mincheng lack now? Isn't it just money and people?

Zhu Mincheng immediately rewarded Jian Hu with a large sum of money. Not only did he generously give Jian Hu the bag of gold sand, he also promoted him on the spot, from the eighth rank of Gongzheng to the seventh rank. Afterwards, Zhu Mincheng appointed Jian Hu as the head of the newly established engineering department of the Song Palace, with full responsibility for construction and mining.

The gold mine is there, and it must be mined as soon as possible, especially the gold in the river full of golden sand. This gold can only play a huge role if it is in one's hands. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste to keep these riches in the mountains?
In order to mine gold, Zhu Mincheng decided to divide the people who were currently farming and mining and building the city wall to go to the river to pan for gold. In addition, Zhu Mincheng also felt that he was seriously short of manpower. Although he had destroyed three tribal alliances and captured a large number of local natives, the number of these natives was still not enough, especially the number of young and strong people was too small. If he wanted to develop rapidly, he needed more people.

But these are not possible in a short period of time. After all, Zhu Mincheng also has to consider his own safety and endurance. With the current capabilities of Xinjing, the existing captives are almost saturated. If these captives are not completely assimilated for his own use, and the construction of Xinjing has not been completed, there is also the problem of agricultural products and food. Without enough food, he cannot feed more people. He has no choice but to settle for the second best and temporarily maintain the current status quo. After finding a way to immigrate another group of people from the Ming Dynasty, he will slowly develop outward.

Jian Hu didn't know that the gold mine he discovered was very famous in history. This gold mine was discovered accidentally about two hundred years later in history. The discovery of the gold mine also triggered the gold rush on the west coast of the New World. It was also because of this gold mine that this place suddenly grew from a settlement of only a few hundred people to a gold-mining place with tens of thousands of people, thus evolving into a real city.

This was once the Gold Mountain. Over the next hundred years, as gold reserves were discovered, they gradually decreased and large-scale mining was eventually stopped, so it was also called "San Francisco."

The bay where Zhu Mincheng and his companions landed and settled is the famous San Francisco Bay Area. Of course, this name, including the names it has used in history, is no longer possible, because Zhu Mincheng arrived here first and set up a new capital here, which also became an overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty and a fiefdom of the Song Dynasty, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

In the following days, Zhu Mincheng continued to focus on the previous land reclamation and construction of Xinjing, while at the same time he also put more energy into gold panning.

In just two months, Jian Hu and his men recovered nearly 3,800 taels of gold from the river. Among them, they also discovered three nuggets of gold of different sizes. The largest piece weighed 6.8 jin, more than three times the weight of the first nugget of gold discovered. After giving some of this wealth as rewards to his subordinates, most of it went into Zhu Mincheng's treasury and became his financial reserve.

After the autumn harvest, Zhu Mincheng retained some people to continue reclamation and transferred more people to participate in gold panning. The amount of gold harvested continued to increase. However, because there were more people panning for gold, although the gold production was higher and the amount of gold obtained was also increasing, from a practical point of view, the proportion of gold production in the river gradually decreased due to the gold panning during this period. After all, there was nothing that could be done about it.

But from the current point of view, the work of panning for gold in the river can continue for a long time, at least for a few years. When the gold in the river is almost panned, there are still gold mines in the mountains. Zhu Mincheng is not worried about these things for the time being. He needs to hurry up and reserve more gold, because according to the time calculation, it won't be long before the fleet from the Ming Dynasty arrives. By then, with this gold in hand, Zhu Mincheng will have sufficient financial resources to buy more materials including weapons from the Ming Dynasty, so as to strengthen himself. At the same time, he can also pass this news back to the Ming Dynasty to lure ordinary people from the Ming Dynasty to immigrate here.

(End of this chapter)