I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 469 New Gold Mountain

When the fleet set out from Jinshanwei, there were a total of 746 crew members, including Chen Lang and Wu Liangchen.

By the time they reached America, only 663 people were left, and most of them were sick. Of the nearly who died, three fell into the sea during a storm, and the rest died of illness.

Why is the disease?
Drinking unhygienic water!
Even though Zhu Houxuan prepared all the ways he could think of to store water, the route was too long and there were too few places to resupply. During the voyage that lasted more than four months, the stored fresh water still deteriorated several times.

During one incident, the water was so turbid and black that the patient had to boil it before drinking it. There were many people suffering from stomach problems, and the doctors were helpless. Although there were herbs on board, there was no water to boil them, so the sick crew could only chew the herbs and eat them.

Hearing the news from the observer, Chen Lang struggled to get up, put on his sword, and picked up the musket. He was also sick now, weak all over, and wanted to have diarrhea but felt that nothing could come out. He held the cabin and ordered: "Explore the deep water area first."

Dozens of crew members who were not sick hung down on ropes and drove more than a dozen small boats to sound the water depth along the coast.

Soon, they found a channel, and when they went inward through the channel, they found an extremely wide bay. The water in the bay was extremely deep, and it could be sheltered from wind and waves, making it an excellent natural harbor.

If we use the names of later generations, this strait is called the Golden Gate Strait, and this bay is called the San Francisco Bay. In later generations, there is a bridge across the strait called the Golden Gate Bridge. In later movies, monsters and aliens like to appear here, and then break the Golden Gate Bridge to show their strength.
Of course there was no bridge at that time, only countless towering trees.

The fleet crossed the strait and docked in the bay. Some crew members stayed behind to guard the ships and the patients, while Wu Liangchen personally led the team to go ashore to explore and get water.

There were some turtles lying on the beach, basking in the sun lazily. They didn't run away when they saw people coming, but stared at them stupidly. However, the crew members had no interest in them.

After walking a short distance ahead, they came to a mountain range covered with dense vegetation. The group climbed up with axes in hand, cutting through the thorns. They had to first reach a high place to observe the surrounding terrain.

"Wow, this tree is so big!" Wu Liangchen exclaimed.

A crew member looked at it and said, "Is this a fir tree? It's too thick. I've never seen one this thick!"

How thick?
The trunk diameter is probably close to two meters! And such trees can be seen everywhere here
The group made their way up the mountain with great difficulty, and soon they had reached the top of the mountain. The mountain was probably only a few dozen meters high, not much higher than the giant redwood tree. It was just that there were big trees everywhere on the mountain, so it looked taller from a distance.

“Is this a cat or a leopard?”

"This pheasant is so big that it foolishly jumped into our team. I don't know what it ate to grow up. It seems that it only has meat but no brains. I don't know if its meat is delicious."

"Hey, there's another deer. Its horns are really big, and the shape is different from the deer in Daming."

"Wolf!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Four wild wolves were shot to death and could be carried back to the boat for a snack.

There was not even a stream on the hill, so everyone could only climb down the hill and find a natural pond in the depression at the bottom of the hill. Some animals were drinking water by the pond, which meant that the water here was drinkable. Wu Liangchen immediately ordered people to fetch water first. After several trips, hundreds of people finally had clean water to drink. After resting for half a day and a night, they continued to explore the next day and went hunting to replenish food.

The animals here are quite stupid and don't know how to run away when they see people, so we got a lot of harvest in the first few days. But the animals soon became smarter and ran away very fast when they saw people, so it was no longer easy to catch prey.

As for the huge pheasant that flew into the expedition team, the crew found it very unpalatable after cooking it. There was no shortage of seasonings on the ship, and the chef on the ship tried various ways to make the chicken taste good, but none of them worked.
The hunting team brought back enough food, so the pheasant meat soon became unpopular and was thrown into the bay for nesting.
These huge pheasants are turkeys. Until later times, turkeys have never appeared on the tables of the Chinese, who eat everything. As for why they have never appeared on the tables of the Chinese, there is only one reason: they are too unpalatable.
Half a month later, most of the patients had recovered, but one person could not hold on and died in the cabin.

Wuliangshan had already explored two hills. The most threatening animal was the black bear. No tigers or anything like that had been seen yet. When they climbed over the third hill, they saw a large lake (not very big in fact). The lake was very close to the coast. If they landed on the west coast, they would be able to find the lake quickly. Landing in the bay would have taken a long detour.

There are fish in the lake. I go back to the boat and get the fishing net. I cast the net and catch all the good fish. There are also various animals drinking water by the lake. It is very suitable for hunting. At least I don’t have to worry about running out of meat.

After discussion, Chen Lang and Wu Liangchen decided to use this place as a temporary settlement.

For the next two months, they searched the entire San Francisco Peninsula but did not find a single native.

Moreover, the climate here is very good. Although it is summer, it does not seem too hot.

"This should be the location of the Golden Mountain marked on your Highness' nautical chart. The location is very similar, and the climate is also very similar. We must speed up our exploration." Chen Lang said, looking at the map.

"It's really interesting. We started from Jinshanwei, crossed the ocean and came to a place called Jinshan. I hope there is a lot of gold here, and it is really a gold mountain," said Wu Liangchen.

"If we really find a gold mountain here, we'll call it the New Gold Mountain," Chen Lang said with a smile.

"Okay! I like this name," Wu Liangchen laughed heartily.

So the expedition team intensified their exploration and sailed across the bay to land.

Zhu Houxuan had not really paid much attention to the topography of San Francisco before he traveled through time, so in the nautical chart he gave, this part of San Francisco only had the shape of a coastline. As for what was on the land, it was up to the crew of the expedition team to slowly explore.
The shore here is densely covered with oak trees and the terrain is very flat. Crossing the wide and flat oak forest, you will come to the mountainous area.

The exploration team did not cross the mountains, but walked around the foot of the mountain, marking the way for positioning. After circling southeast for several days, they suddenly found a canyon. After passing through the canyon, the view was suddenly clear.

Although it is occasionally rugged, it looks more like the Great Plains at a glance.

"That's a cow?"

The exploration team was all stunned. Bison were everywhere on the plain. These bison had big heads, short mouths, short and fat necks, larger front bodies and smaller back bodies. They looked asymmetrical, with high bulges in the shoulders, a trunk that tilted obviously backwards, and low hips. They were very different from the Ming Dynasty's plowing cattle.
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(End of this chapter)