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

Chapter 472: The Veritable New Gold Mountain
After the two indigenous leaders communicated, the large tribe immediately collected the nugget gold and exchanged it with Wu Liangchen for two steel axes on the spot. His tribesmen then celebrated with singing and dancing.

In order to exchange for more steel axes, the natives went out together and took Wu Liangchen to the river beach.

The confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River at this time was very different from that of later times. Because there was no hydroelectric power station built upstream, and there was no North-South Water Diversion Project in California, it was relatively narrower and the water flow was more turbulent.

By the way, the United States after World War II was indeed a beacon of humanity. In the 50s, it was able to carry out the North-South Water Diversion Project. It not only controlled the flooding in Northern California, but also solved the water shortage problem in Southern California. If it were the United States in the 21st century, it would probably take to years to vote on such a huge project.

In the fertile delta where the two rivers meet, Wu Liangchen encountered the third indigenous settlement, where the tribe had a population of two to three thousand and had a large amount of farmland where broad beans were grown.

When they arrived at the south bank of the estuary, everyone's eyes were wide open.

Through the clear river water, the shallow water area was actually flashing with golden light under the sunlight.

"Golden Sands!"

Someone shouted, and the rest of the team members all rushed over. Wu Liangchen was unable to suppress them for a moment.

Li Dazhu took off his shoes, rolled up his trouser legs and jumped into the water. He scooped up a handful of sand with both hands. He could see several grains of gold mixed in. He swallowed his saliva and said, "Captain Wu, this is not gold panning, this is gold holding!"
Seeing more and more team members going down to the river, Wu Liangchen shouted: "Why are you panicking? Come up and check around!"

There are two rivers in total. The southern river has less gold sand and the further you go upstream, the harder it is to find gold. But the northern river is simply crazy. As we go several miles upstream, we can see gold sand everywhere.
Therefore, these two rivers have Chinese names, called the Golden River (Sacramento River) and the Shining Gold River (American River).

As for the indigenous tribe next to it, Wu Liangshan named it Shanjin Town.

After exploring for a whole day, the natives were only looking for nuggets of gold and didn't even know how to collect gold sand.

One crew member was eager to try it and advised: "Captain Wu, stop exploring and make some sand nets to pan for gold!"

Wu Liangchen pointed at the natives who were looking for nugget gold and said with a smile: "How much gold can we find with just a few dozen of us? We should make sand nets and ask the natives to help us pan for gold, and then trade with them for various things!"

"Yes, the captain is wise. We can reap the benefits!" the crew member flattered him.

Unfortunately, there were no bamboos here, so they searched along the river and found patches of wild flax. The natives living by the river had learned how to use flax to tie ropes and weave nets, but they didn't know how to weave linen cloth.

Wu Liangchen called the three native leaders and asked his subordinates to peel hemp skin on the spot and taught them to make a simple sieve. Then he used the sieve to pan for gold, piled the gold sand he had panned together, and placed an axe next to it to indicate that it could be exchanged.

The natives were delighted and learned how to make sieves, then jumped into the river to pan for gold.

Wu Liangchen, on the advice of his team, left half of the team to supervise the gold panning, while the other half explored the river further downstream. The two rivers converged into a large lake, which the expedition team thought was a lake, but was actually an inland extension of the bay, and the lake water was fresh water with a high salt content.

Continuing down, the lake narrows and we arrive at a river valley.

Across the valley is a wide bay.

A navigator held a compass in his hand and drew a simple map on the ground with a knife: "Captain Wu, we have gone around in a big circle. If we continue to go west or southwest along the shore, we will probably return to where we landed. Next time we come, we can take a boat directly to the northeast, and we will definitely reach the Flowing Gold River and the Shining Gold River."

Wu Liangchen laughed and said, "That would be even more convenient!" "In that case, I'll give you a task. You take some people back to tell Captain Chen that I have found where the gold mountain is, and ask him to sail here to find us." Wu Liangchen continued.

"Yes, sir!" The navigator called a few people and went back.

Chen Lang, who stayed behind in the fleet, was overjoyed when he received the news. Then, under the guidance of the navigator, he sailed northeast, crossed a strait and a river valley, and came to the big lake that Wu Liangchen and his men had encountered before. Along the lake to the west are the Shanjin River and the Liujin River.

In this way, it is very convenient to travel. You can directly take a boat to collect gold without having to take the dangerous and unpredictable land route.

When the ship arrived at the river mouth, the natives were stunned.

They all lay on the shore to worship and even worshipped Chen Lang and others as gods.

"Brother Wu, you have performed a great contribution!" Chen Liang said excitedly after jumping off the boat.

Wu Liangchen showed a bit of satisfaction on his face and said, "Fortunately, I have accomplished my mission and finally found this golden mountain. But I didn't expect that this golden mountain is actually a golden river."

"Yes, whether it is the Gold Mountain or the Gold River, with so much gold, the name of New Gold Mountain is worthy of its name! The task assigned to us by His Highness has also been completed by a small part." Chen Lang said happily as he looked at the shining golden light.

"Yes!" Wu Liangchen also said, then he suddenly fell silent and looked at Shan Jinhe.
"Tell me, how did His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing know that there are so many in this place thousands of miles away?" Wu Liangchen suddenly said.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, don't think about what you shouldn't think about, just do your own thing." Chen Lang said lightly, then took a deep breath and continued: "Your Highness, King Jing, how can we guess what a god-like person is like?"

Two months passed quickly. According to Chen Lang's calculations, it was already late autumn in the Ming Dynasty.

The temperature did drop, but to Chen Lang's surprise, it only dropped a few degrees, which was completely different from the Ming Dynasty.
So Chen Lang wrote in his logbook: "There are many strange things about Xinjinshan. In midsummer, the highest daily temperature is 20 degrees, in mid-autumn, the highest daily temperature is more than 10 degrees, and in midwinter, the temperature is above zero degrees at the coldest time unless it snows. This place is very suitable for living, and the land is fertile and the products are abundant. It is really a blessed land! It's a pity that it is not the land of our Ming Dynasty."

The sailors spent the Spring Festival near the town of Shanjin.

In the past few months, they explored the surrounding area of ​​300 miles and encountered six native tribes. The natives of the tribes further upstream of the Shanjin River were more fierce, with a population of several thousand, and they wanted to take away their ironware by relying on their large numbers.

Wu Liangchen decisively ordered the shooting, killing more than ten people on the spot, and the natives fled in panic.

From then on, the natives were even more awed by them, thinking they were gods walking on earth.

After the Lantern Festival, the fleet finally headed south to find a route back home.

When they left, they took away more than 120 boxes of gold.

The second chapter is almost finished, so I will post one first.

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(End of this chapter)