North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 61: How much gold did they actually pan for?

After noon, we saw off Vivian, who was reluctant to leave, and Captain Vic.

The waterway back has been cleared, so there shouldn't be any greater danger.

I learned from Captain Vic that the newspaper that Edgar Allan Poe was in charge of setting up was going well, and the equipment and supplies he had ordered should already be on the ship heading to San Francisco.

The supplies and equipment ordered by the machinery factory have already been loaded onto ships in various parts of the East and Europe, but they will not arrive for some time.

The plan to procure and stockpile grain and various supplies was not going too smoothly, as they were in extremely short supply and prices continued to soar. Any merchant with a modicum of foresight would not sell large quantities of grain and supplies at this time.

Ah Zu was not the only one who wanted to hoard gold and make a fortune from gold prospectors.

However, in the past two weeks, they have managed to buy two second-hand galleons, but they are still short of captains and sailors. Vic is working on a solution, and in a week at most, the two galleons will be able to run coastal routes, transporting Huamei Company's products out and bringing in the scarce food and supplies in the bay area.

Huamei Company's operations have been generally normal this month, but the San Francisco market is nearing saturation. It's hard to say how much money they're making now; income and expenses are basically breaking even.

However, the number of people recruited kept increasing, especially Chinese. As arranged by Azu, everyone except those with families in the local area moved to the shipyard, including Edgar Allan Poe.

Currently, more than 600 people have moved into the shipyard, and the number is still increasing.

Production continued as usual, but sales channels were not fully opened, and the stockpiled jeans and prefabricated houses were growing larger and larger.

In addition to production, Vic purchased a large number of guns and ammunition, and worked overtime to produce hand grenades, arming hundreds of people.

Edgar Allan Poe, a West Point graduate and a proper American Army officer, proved invaluable once again, diligently training the hundreds of men in the shipyard day and night.

Of course, this also means spending money like water! In this era of soaring prices, it's quite difficult to support several hundred people.

If it weren't for the fact that Ah Zu was making a fortune every day, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of gold coming in daily, Huamei Company would be struggling to survive now.

Just like this time, Captain Vic transported back 30,000 ounces of gold, worth at least $600,000.

At this point, Captain Vic couldn't help but admire Azu's long-term vision once again.

Back when jeans and prefab houses were selling like hotcakes and the market was booming, he insisted on taking the risk of striking it rich.

If it weren't for Ah Zu's stroke of genius in digging up a gold mine, it's hard to say what Huamei Company would be like now.

Furthermore, the current situation in San Francisco is still one where countless carrion vultures are scavenging over the "corpse" of the Cameron family, which has collapsed, vying for scraps.

After more than a month of fierce fighting, the bulk of the Cameron family’s various assets have now been distributed, and several “big winners” have emerged victorious.

Even the few remaining scraps are still a huge fortune, attracting countless people like flies.

The Cameron family, it seems, truly surrendered completely, vanished entirely, and handed over their vast fortune to others.

Therefore, the situation in San Francisco gradually calmed down, and the huge waves brought about by the death of the Cameron family were now only ripples.

But Azu was certain that his judgment was correct; the calm before the battle was merely to lull the enemy into a false sense of security!
All the apparent calm was just a prelude to that final, thunderous strike!
However, none of this has much to do with Azu right now.

After seeing Vivian and Vic off, he led several dozen Native Americans into the deep mountains of Nevada to continue his exploration.
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Time flies, and more than a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

During this period, Elder Bearskin visited the gold mining camp twice more, bringing back a large amount of grain, rum, five hundred rifles, five hundred revolvers, and a large quantity of ammunition and grenades.

In addition, there are a large number of saddles, stirrups, and horseshoes.

In the past, Native American cavalry lacked saddles, stirrups, and horseshoes, which greatly reduced their combat effectiveness.

With these weapons and horse tack, the Blackfoot cavalry's fighting power has undoubtedly increased many times over!
And so much food, supplies, weapons, ammunition, and resources finally secured an unbreakable friendship with the Blackfoot tribe.

During this long period, Azu was not idle at all. He led more and more Blackfoot tribesmen to explore all the mountains that might contain "mother mines". After washing the collected mineral samples, Azu finally identified several gold-rich vein locations.

Judging from the gold content of the samples, the Sierra Nevada Mountains' "mother mine" is absolutely deserving of its reputation!
The gold content of the core veins in the "mother mine" is no less than, and no less than, that in the Golden Lake!

Moreover, compared to the small Golden Lake, which is only a few dozen acres in size, the "mother mine" is several mountains in size!

In later generations, hundreds of tons of gold were mined from the "mother mine"!

That's where you can truly shine!

However, compared to simple tasks like washing gold sand from rivers and lakes, mining hard rock gold mines is more technically challenging and requires a greater investment of equipment, manpower, and capital.

The gold rush in the Bay Area, which lasted for three years from 1849 to 1851, was largely washed away because the easily panned gold deposits in rivers and lakes had been washed away.

However, the large gold mine buried deep in the mountains was not discovered during this era.

That being said, once Azu starts large-scale mining of hard rock gold veins, the commotion will be enormous and will definitely not escape anyone's notice.

How to acquire all the gold mines, each containing at least several hundred tons of gold, is another enormous problem.

But that's at least next year's time!
This year's gold rush is coming to an end.

The golden lake, covering dozens of acres, has long been completely drained.

Besides the golden tiger dog head gold piece that Ah Zu personally found, five more large dog head gold pieces were discovered one after another.

Aside from lacking the lifelike appearance of the golden tiger, these five gold nuggets are no less impressive in size or weight, and each is worth over $30,000.

In addition, Captain Vic transported back two more shipments of gold, totaling 70,000 ounces, worth over $1.4 million.

In total, the five shipments of gold transported back weighed over 130,000 ounces and were worth over $2.8 million.

Right now, the gold dust at the bottom of the Golden Lake has been completely washed away, and what's left for everyone is the last batch of gold.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss...!"

Ah Zu held the iron can and gradually poured the gold particles inside onto the scale.

He had done the same thing dozens of times, but Ah Zu never tired of it. Every time the gold was weighed, it was so exciting.

This is far more exciting and addictive than counting money until your hands cramp in later generations!
This is also the last weighing of gold this year!
The amount of gold on the scales was increasing; this was all the gold that had been panned over the past ten days, a truly enormous quantity.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss...!"

Several large jars of gold were piled up like mountains on the scale!

The bright orange color became increasingly dazzling and glaring.

But everyone's eyes widened even more!

Finally, Azu poured out the last bit of gold!
Azu put down the tin can and focused his gaze on the reading on the scale's pointer.

Jason couldn't hold back any longer and asked.

"Li, how much gold do we get for this last one of the year?"

(End of this chapter)